Pubs, restaurants and cafes in most of Scotland are being barred from selling alcohol indoors for more than two weeks, as part of efforts to curb Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
Pubs and licensed cafes in five Scottish health board areas – Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire & Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley – must shut to all but takeaway customers for more than two weeks from Friday.
Outdoor bars, restaurants and cafes will be allowed to remain open up until 10pm and will be allowed to sell alcohol up to that time.
The restrictions will come into force at 6pm on Friday and are intended to end after October 25.
However, all licensed premises in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley health board areas will be closed for both indoor and outdoor operations.
Cafes without a licence to sell alcohol will be allowed to open until 6pm, the First Minister said, to counter social isolation.
The First Minister said £40million will be made available to support businesses, for those who most need it, although it was not made clear how this would work.
The new restrictions come as Scotland recorded more than 1000 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, with the number of new weekly cases doubling.
Number of weekly deaths linked to Covid-19 in Scotland doubles
She said: “Let me be clear. We are not going back into lockdown today.
“We are not closing schools, colleges or universities.
“We are not halting the remobilisation of the NHS for non-Covid care. And we are not asking people to stay at home.
“So while the measures I announce today will feel like a backward step, they are in the interests of protecting our progress overall.
“It is by taking the tough but necessary action now, that we hope to avoid even tougher action in future.”
People in the central belt of Scotland have been asked to avoid public transport unless absolutely necessary in the next two weeks.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that those in the five health board areas should only use public transport when travelling to work, school or other unavoidable reasons.
While a travel restriction is not being enforced on people in the central belt, Ms Sturgeon urged those living in these areas not to travel beyond their own health boards.
Ms Sturgeon also confirmed:
- introduction of regulations of mandatory use of face coverings
- strength of compliance with FACTS advice
- from this weekend, government is asking shops to return to two metre physical distancing and put in one way systems
- government will take further steps towards greater testing
- a strategic framework to look at how the virus is spreading
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