Household visits banned as new COVID-19 restrictions announced

Indoor visits to other households will not be permitted from Wednesday to limit the spread of coronavirus, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

Regulations to give effect to the new restrictions will be laid on Friday and will be reviewed every three weeks.

The First Minister also confirmed a new 10pm curfew for pubs, bars and restaurants will come into force from Friday.

It follows rising case numbers in Scotland over recent weeks, which is now averaging 285 new COVID-19 cases per day.

Addressing MSPs in the chamber, Sturgeon said: “This extends the restriction that has been in place across the west of Scotland for the past three weeks to all of Scotland. Regulations giving effect to this change will come into force on Friday, but I am asking people to comply from tomorrow.

“One of the reasons we have decided to do this is that our early data suggests this restriction is starting to slow the increase of cases in the west of Scotland.

“So if we take the difficult decision to extend it nationwide now, in an early and preventative way, we hope it will help to bring the R number down and the virus back under control.”

In the last 24 hours, one further death was registered after the individual tested positive for COVID-19 and 383 people tested positive.

This was 7.6 per cent of people newly tested.

The FM confirmed the R-number – the rate of transmission – is above one, and “possibly as high as 1.4”.

The new restrictions go further than those announced by Boris Johnson for England earlier.

Sturgeon explained advice from the chief medical officer and national clinical director suggested restrictions south of the border “will not be sufficient to bring the R-number down”.

The First Minister also announced the Scottish Government would consider introducing a legal obligation to allow people to work from home.

But schools are to remain open and young people under 18 are able to gather in groups of up to six in outdoor settings, regardless of the number of households involved.