Pictures of packed pubs in Scotland made me want to cry, Nicola Sturgeon says

Nicola Sturgeon said pictures of packed pubs made her "want to cry" as she announced there have been no new coronavirus deaths in Scotland for the 18th day in a row.

Speaking at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing on Monday, the First Minister said there are 18 new Covid-19 cases in Scotland.

Eleven of the new cases have been recorded in Aberdeen, where NHS Grampian is dealing with an outbreak.

She said she could not yet say if the news cases are linked to the outbreak, but she warned the Aberdeen cluster is "exactly what we feared when we reopened hospitality".

On Sunday, it emerged 13 cases of coronavirus had been discovered among people who attended The Hawthorn Bar.

The owners said customers who were there on July 26 tested positive but NHS Grampian confirmed they are only showing mild symptoms.

Physical distancing measures were put in place within the pub and contact tracing is being carried out to identify any other potential cases.

"Of course it’s not just this incident in Aberdeen, across the county and across social media we are seeing evidence of people - and it is largely younger people - gathering together with little or no physical distancing in place," she said at the daily briefing.

"I’ve seen pictures on social media over this weekend that, not to put too fine a point on it, made me want to cry looking at them."

Later in the briefing, the First Minister said recent increases in daily cases and the clusters being seen were not unexpected when the Scottish Government decided to ease lockdown restrictions.

"In terms of if we’re seeing anything right now that we wouldn’t have expected to see, probably not overall," she said.

SNP MP Stephen Flynn had earlier tweeted two photos of Aberdeen city centre at the weekend, where a cluster of 13 cases of Covid-19 were discovered in The Hawthorn Bar.

The MP said he was "scunnered" by the images, which showed dozens of people queueing to enter pubs in the city.

Ms Sturgeon said it is likely there will be more Covid-19 clusters in Scotland "in the weeks ahead".

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