‘Freedom Day’: Nicola Sturgeon warns Scots to take care as English lockdown ends

The first minister yesterday warned Scots to ignore England’s “Freedom Day” and stressed some Covid restrictions remain in place north of the border.

Nicola Sturgeon said the country cannot wish away the virus and urged people to continue taking care when some lockdown rules are relaxed tomorrow.

Scotland drops to Level 0 tomorrow – as the country enjoys a burst of summer – but many restrictions remain, including limits on opening hours for licensed premises and mandatory face coverings.

Further easing in Scotland is planned for August 9 if case numbers fall.

In England, all Covid curbs end tomorrow despite many experts voicing concern the move is premature and sends out a dangerous message when cases are running at more than 50,000 a day.

Israel, hailed as a world leader in vaccination, removed restrictions four weeks ago but was yesterday warned of another lockdown amid fears of a fourth wave.

As talk of ‘freedom day’ dominates, remember that it applies to England only. We’re all desperate to be ‘free’ of Covid but we can’t simply wish it away. Even though cases falling in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 just now, virus is still a threat. Keeping certain measures while we vaccinate is important. https://t.co/tTLB88V5N0

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) July 17, 2021

Sturgeon said on Twitter yesterday: “As talk of ‘freedom day’ dominates, remember that it applies to England only. We’re all desperate to be free of Covid but we can’t simply wish it away. Even though cases are falling in Scotland just now, the virus is still a threat. Keeping certain measures while we vaccinate is important.”

Her warning came as England’s health secretary Sajid Javid announced he has tested positive for the virus and has mild symptoms despite having two doses of a vaccine.

In Scotland, there was a slight rise in new infections yesterday – 2,317 were reported, compared to 2,047 on Friday. The deaths of another four Scots who had the virus were also recorded on Saturday.

Professor Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, said England should follow Scotland in keeping some infection prevention measures in place after July 19.

He said: “What I have been concerned about for many months is that if the unlocking really is a big release… then there’s potential for a very large wave indeed.

“I was always concerned, and I’ve said so many times, that this idea that it would be a final freedom day was, I have to say, somewhat naive.

“The public health expectation was that we would need additional measures to keep the rate of increase of cases under control.”

Boris Johnson has repeatedly said he wants the lifting of lockdown on so-called “freedom day” to be “irreversible”, but in recent days ministers have begun to sound more cautious, with public transport companies and retailers saying masks will be mandatory even if they are only recommend in government guidelines.

Woolhouse said the insistence by the UK Government that unlocking in England would be irreversible “painted (them) into both a political and public health corner” should circumstances change.

The vaccination programme in Scotland continues with 3,970,026 people now having received the first dose and 2,954,776 having had a second.

The Scottish Government faced criticism yesterday after it emerged tens of thousands of calls to an NHS vaccine helpline went unanswered.

Official figures obtained by Scottish Labour revealed more than 218,000 calls were ended before being connected to an adviser since the start of April. However, the Scottish Government said some of the abandoned calls were due to people following a recorded prompt to “access help digitally”.

Two of Scotland’s largest vaccination centres – at Edinburgh’s Younger Building and Glasgow’s SEC – have now closed amid criticism from opposition politicians that the rollout was slowing.

However, a Scottish Government target should be met today with all over-18s who have attended a scheduled appointment expected to have had their first dose by the end of the day. It is expected all adults will have had their second jab by September 12.

The number of people in hospital with Covid fell yesterday for the second day in a row. There were 517 people in hospital yesterday, including 49 in intensive care, down from 532 on Friday and 543 on Thursday.