Nicola Sturgeon to unveil even harsher lockdown to curb mutant virus

Nicola Sturgeon was weighing up keeping schools shut until the February half term and ordering Scots to stay at home as she prepared to unveil even harsher Covid lockdown restrictions.

The First Minister will hold a meeting of her Cabinet on Monday morning to approve new restrictions, before making an emergency statement to Holyrood at 2pm.

Sources close to Ms Sturgeon told the Telegraph she was examining extending the closure of schools from Jan 18 to the end of the month, or after the February half-term break, but with a promise to reopen them sooner if the situation improved.

They said she was considering how to strengthen her call for Scots to voluntarily stay in the areas around their homes and stricter limits on meeting others outdoors.

The public could also be asked to wear face coverings in a wider array of settings, including outside, as already happens in some Continental countries.

Although all of Scotland is already in the highest tier 4 of Ms Sturgeon's lockdown system, the First Minister is concerned the restrictions are not enough to control the spread of the new, more transmissible variant.

Scotland recorded a further 2,464 new Covid cases, again one of the highest totals since the pandemic started, with 15.2 per cent of tests returning a positive result. The World Health Organisation threshold for the virus being under control is 5 per cent.

But there are fears Scotland will be kept in a straitjacket until Easter when it is hoped the vaccine roll-out will have covered 99 per cent of those at risk of dying from the virus.

Holyrood's opposition parties demanded Ms Sturgeon publish the evidence and data to justify the imposition of even harsher restrictions, especially given the damaging impact on children of school closures. Scotland's independent schools are expected to follow her latest edicts.

Watch: What is the new Covid variant?

Although the mutant strain is thought to be more transmissible among children, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said at the weekend there had been no increase in the severity of Covid cases among young people.

Boris Johnson said that parents in England should send their children to primary school today (mon) if they are open in their area.

The Prime Minister said the two-week school closures in London and south-east England were "exceptional" due the fast-spreading variant but there was "no doubt in my mind that schools are safe."

However, he also put England on notice for a third national lockdown as he said he was “fully reconciled” to the need for tougher measures to combat the new strain of coronavirus.

Whitehall sources told The Telegraph that discussions are underway about the return of shielding in England - telling vulnerable people to stay indoors - and whether it could also be extended to people in specific age groups, such as the over-70s.

The Scottish Government's emergency resilience committee heard on Saturday that "quick and decisive action is needed" as the new variant of the virus is becoming the dominant one in Scotland.

John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, will chair a meeting of his Education Recovery Group at 9am on Monday to examine the evidence on schools. The Scottish Cabinet will meet at 10am.

Ken Macintosh, Holyrood's presiding officer, yesterday agreed to a request from Ms Sturgeon for Holyrood to be recalled from its festive break for the second time so she could deliver her emergency statement.

In a series of tweets in which she urged Scots to stay home "as much as possible", Ms Sturgeon said: "The rapid increase in Covid cases, driven by the new variant, is of very serious concern.

"The steep increases and severe NHS pressure being experienced in other parts of the UK is a sign of what may lie ahead. So we must take all steps to slow spread while vaccination progresses.

"We, like other countries, are in a race between this faster spreading strain of Covid and the vaccination programme."

She said the Scottish Government must "do more to slow down the virus" and "further action" would be considered by her Cabinet.

Ms Sturgeon repeated her claim last week that the mutant strain makes the coming week "the most dangerous since start of the pandemic" and argued the onus was on her government "to act quickly and decisively in the national interest."

Pupils were scheduled to start "online" learning on Jan 11 then return to classrooms on Jan 18. Sources close to Ms Sturgeon suggested that primary children could be allowed to return earlier as they are less affected by the virus.

Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, said opposition leaders should be briefed in advance of Ms Sturgeon's statement "on the evidence and reasoning behind a tightening of restrictions."

Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, said: "With tighter restrictions on movement and in schools comes a greater responsibility on the government to show its workings.

“Shutting secondary schools and even primary schools for longer will inflict a heavy price on the future opportunities for young people who have already lost out so much. So we need to see the evidence for such a decision."

Professor Sir Mark Walport, the UK's former chief scientific adviser and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), warned that it would be difficult to keep the new variant under control without “much tighter” social distancing measures.

Asked if this included closing schools, he said: “We know that transmission occurs within schools. We know that a person between 12 and 16 is seven times more likely than others in a household to bring the infection into a household."

UsForThem Scotland, a parents' campaign group, teachers should be prioritised for Covid vaccinations to prevent school closures.

Watch: What is long COVID?