Covid briefing: Glasgow only part of Scotland to remain at Level 3 as restrictions to ease in Moray and no change for East Renfrewshire

Glasgow will be the only part of Scotland left under level three restrictions after Nicola Sturgeon announced Moray would be moving to level two.

Speaking at a Scottish Government coronavirus briefing on Friday, the first minister said Scotland’s largest city will remain at level three for at least a further week.

Here are other key points from Friday’s briefing.

Moray

In Moray – which like Glasgow had stayed in level three when most of Scotland moved to level two at the start of this week – the “situation has improved very significantly”,  Sturgeon said.

She said infection levels were down from 98 new cases a week per 100,000 people last week, to 37, with test positivity falling from 2.8% to 1.3%.

As a result, she said: “I am able to confirm today Moray will move down from Level 3 to Level 2, and this decision will take effect from midnight tonight.”

She said improvements following measures brought in to tackle an outbreak in Moray mean it can drop to level two from midnight on Friday.

East Renfrewshire

There had been concerns that East Renfrewshire would be moved from level two to level three, due to a higher seven-day average rate of cases per 100,000 people at 118.3 than Glasgow. It will, however, remain in level two.

Sturgeon said the total number of cases in East Renfrewshire is significantly smaller than in Glasgow, with only 17 on Thursday compared to 166 in the city.

Glasgow measures

Speaking about the situation in the Glasgow City Council area, Sturgeon said there had been “extensive public health measures” deployed over the past 10 days.

This includes enhanced testing and vaccination in the areas with the highest rates of coronavirus, particularly in the G41 and G42 postcodes.

But the first minister said: “Despite all the efforts that have been made in the past 10 days, cases are still rising in Glasgow.”

She added authorities are “fairly certain” the increase is being driven by the Indian variant of the virus.

The first minister said the number of cases per 100,000 population in Glasgow had gone from 71 last week to 112 now.

The percentage of tests coming back positive in Glasgow has also increased over the last week from 3.1% to 4%, she added.

“We don’t think we have turned the corner in Glasgow yet,” Sturgeon said.

Daily figures

Sturgeon also gave an update on the daily coronavirus figures in Scotland.

Across the country 414 new coronavirus cases but no deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, the first minister said.

The death toll under this daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – remains at 7,664.

The daily test positivity rate was 1.9%, up from 1.6% the previous day.

There were 81 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down two from the previous day, and of these four people were in intensive care, down one from the day before.

So far 3,820,251 people in Scotland have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination.

Travel ban from English hotspots

Sturgeon announced new travel restrictions, linked to “particularly serious outbreaks” of the Indian variant in England.

From Monday onwards travel restrictions will be imposed between Scotland the three local authority areas – Bedford, Bolton and Blackburn and Darwin.

The first minister said: “If you are planning to visit these areas in the next few days please consider whether you need to make your visit or whether it can be delayed.”

She said it was hoped these rules would not be in place for very long, but added they were “a further way of helping us reduce the risk that any more of this new variant comes into Scotland while we are trying to deal with outbreaks of it we have right now”.