East Renfrewshire wins last minute reprieve from added covid restrictions

Families living in Barrhead and Neilston will remain under Level 2 restrictions, it has been revealed.

Scotland’s First Minister confirmed this afternoon that East Renfrewshire would not be given Level 3 status as widely expected.

Nicola Sturgeon said the current covid infection rate of 118 cases per 100,000 of population was largely confined to household clusters of the virus.

The smaller population of East Renfrewshire also means the percentage of those affected by the virus has been over inflated.

The raw data revealed that just 17 cases of the virus were recorded in the region yesterday.

For these reasons, Ms Sturgeon said, the local authority area would win a last-minute reprieve.

She said: “In East Renfrewshire we think strong and targeted public health measures have more of a chance at this stage of stemming the rise without the need to use wider restrictions.

“Our judgement at the moment is that East Renfrewshire should stay at level two for now, although this will be kept under close review.

“We’ll continue to use enhanced public health measures to try to keep covid rates under control.”

In other areas such as Glasgow City where infection rates are at a similar level to those in East Renfrewshire Level 3 restrictions have been imposed because the virus is much more widespread.

Yesterday in Glasgow 116 cases were recorded.

Cases in the south side of the city, which neighbours East Renfrewshire, remain high as increased testing continues to be rolled out across the area.

Ms Sturgeon added: “On the face of it levels in East Renfrewshire as a proportion of the population are actually slightly higher than Glasgow.

“In the last week, we’ve seen 118 new cases for every 100,000 people, and I’m acutely aware therefore that people will look at the raw data and see if Glasgow is in level three, East Renfrewshire should be there too.

“But as you have heard me say many times before over the past year, and I know this is really difficult, but it’s important, the situation, underneath the raw data is often more complex.”

It was earlier revealed that people aged 18 to 30 in Glasgow’s south side are being encouraged to come forward to book an early Covid-19 vaccine.

To date 55,467 people have received a first dose of the vaccine in East Renfrewshire, representing 75.3 per cent of the adult population.

A further 29,594 people have received a second dose, 40 per cent.

In Renfrewshire 101,443 people have had their first jab and 54,057 a second; they make up 70 and 37 per cent of the adult population respectively.