First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says Glasgow will stay in level 3 lockdown

Glasgow is to stay in lockdown for at least another week, though it is hoped a move to level two will be possible from next week.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says case numbers in Scotland’s biggest city were still “uncomfortably high” and there it would be “premature” to move it out of level three sooner.

But she added there were “signs of progress” and, assuming case numbers stabilise, it should be possible for Glasgow to move to level two from Saturday 5 June.

The final decision will be announced by Wednesday next week.

She said: “The view of the national incident management is two-fold. Firstly, that it would be premature to move Glasgow out of level three immediately this week while the situation remains so fragile.

“However, and secondly, if incidence continues to stabilise and assuming levels of hospitalisation remain reasonably stable, the incident management team has made clear to me that they would support a move to level two from the end of next week.”

Meanwhile the rest of mainland Scotland is set to move to level one from Monday 7 June. This will be confirmed in a statement to parliament on Tuesday.

This is despite case numbers rising again across Scotland.

The First Minister announced the R-number is thought to be around 1.3, though she said this was driven in large part by the outbreak in Glasgow.

In the last 24 hours, 641 people have tested positive for COVID-19. Of these, 234 were in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, 132 were in NHS Lothian and 104 in NHS Lanarkshire.

The Indian variant accounts for roughly half of new cases, but Sturgeon said rising case numbers were largely concentrated among younger groups – which suggests the vaccination of older adults is having some protective effect.

She added if the reduction in health harms continues even as case numbers are rising, it may be possible to change the approach to the pandemic, with a move away from blanket restrictions towards other public health measures.

Many of the islands are already in level one.