Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has laid down plans to loosen coronavirus lockdown restrictions from next month, allowing some non-essential retail to reopen from April 5 and hospitality to restart partially from April 26.
Sturgeon, who has been under opposition pressure to give specific target dates for lockdown easing, said case numbers and deaths had fallen sharply since the start of the year and vaccinations had increased confidence the pandemic could be kept under control.
“This is certainly the most hopeful I have felt about the situation for a long time,” she said.
However, the first minister said “care and caution” were still essential. Scotland has recorded an average of 570 cases a day over the past week compared with 490 the week before. “It’s clearly not the direction of travel we want to see,” she said.
Sturgeon said she hoped a phased reopening of non-essential retail would start on April 5, with click-and-collect services permitted from that date alongside a reopening of homeware stores, car showrooms, garden centres and hairdressers.
By April 26, the government hoped travel restrictions would be lifted and reopening allowed for tourist accommodation, all remaining retail premises, museums, galleries and gyms for individual exercise. Cafés and restaurants would be allowed to open outdoors serving alcohol until 10pm, and possibly indoors until 8pm without alcohol, Sturgeon said.
By May 17, she said, the government hoped to allow a much greater return to normality for indoor hospitality and to reopen cinemas and bingo halls. However, all such measures would depend on continued public compliance with coronavirus rules.
The CBI, the employers’ organisation, welcomed the announcement, but said businesses “low on cash, confidence and demand” would need more help from the Scottish and UK governments.
Tracy Black, the CBI’s Scotland director, said: “The announcement of indicative dates for reopening some of Scotland’s hardest-hit sectors provides a welcome steer for a business community that has been starved of hope for too long.”
