This content was published on 01 June 2021 – 15:14
London, Jun 1 (EFE) .- The Chief Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, announced this Monday that the region will slow down the de-escalation of restrictions against the pandemic due to the increase in positive cases of covid-19.
Much of central Scotland will not relax its rules on social gatherings and the opening of entertainment venues next Saturday, as planned, Sturgeon said in an appearance before the Parliament of Holyrood (Edinburgh).
“Taking the path of caution while we wait for more people to be fully vaccinated gives us the best opportunity to stay in the right direction,” said the chief minister.
“It is important to note that this is a pause (in the de-escalation), but not a step backward,” stressed the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP, in English).
About twenty Scottish municipalities will see restrictions relaxed next weekend, while in the Shetland Islands, the Orkney and the Hebrides they will be placed in the so-called “zero level” of restrictions, which allows social gatherings of up to fifteen people from various homes abroad.
The step taken by the Scottish Government comes as various experts have warned that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to completely lift restrictions in England on June 21 may be premature.
The expansion of the so-called Indian variant, labeled by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Delta, has brought the United Kingdom to the brink of a new wave of the pandemic, has warned microbiologist Ravi Gupta, one of the advisers of the British government.
“The idea that the work is already done is wrong,” warned Adam Finn, a member of the British Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI).
“There are still many people who have neither passed the virus nor been immunized. That is why we are in a vulnerable position,” he said.
The British Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, warned last week that up to three-quarters of the covid cases that are identified in the United Kingdom already correspond to the Indian variant, more contagious than the predominant one so far in the country. EFE
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