Nicola Sturgeon warns R might be ABOVE one in Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon today banned Scots from going to Indian variant ‘hotspots’ in England as she warned the R rate in Scotland might be above one.

The Scottish First minister voiced alarm at the threat posed by the strain as she announced that Glasgow will remain under tougher lockdown measures for another week.

At a media briefing, Ms Sturgeon said cases had risen by a quarter north of the border in the last week, and the city had not ‘turned the corner’ despite intensive efforts to clamp down on infections with surge testing and vaccinations.

However, she said Moray – which had also been held back before when restrictions in the rest of Scotland were downgraded – will now move down from Level 3 to Level 2 from midnight.

East Renfrewshire will stay in Level 2 despite calls from some experts for tougher curbs, although Ms Sturgeon the situation would remain under ‘close review’.

Meanwhile, a temporary ban is being slapped on travel to parts of England that have been trying to contain the Indian variant – Bedford, Bolton and Blackburn and Darwin. It will come into force from Monday.

‘Despite all the efforts that have been made in the past 10 days, cases are still rising in Glasgow,’ Ms Sturgeon said. 

She added authorities are ‘fairly certain’ the increase is being driven by the Indian variant of the virus. 

Nicola Sturgeon today warned the R rate in Scotland might be above one as she warned the Indian variant appears to be driving outbreaks

Nicola Sturgeon warned of the threat posed by the strain as she announced that Glasgow will remain under tougher lockdown measures for another week

Ms Sturgeon announced new travel restrictions, linked to ‘particularly serious outbreaks’ of the Indian variant in England.

From Monday onwards travel restrictions will be imposed between Scotland the three local authority areas – Bedford, Bolton and Blackburn and Darwin.

‘If you are planning to visit these areas in the next few days please consider whether you need to make your visit or whether it can be delayed,’ she said.

She said it was hoped these rules would not be in place for very long, but added they were ‘a further way of helping us reduce the risk that any more of this new variant comes into Scotland while we are trying to deal with outbreaks of it we have right now’. 

‘There are no grounds at all right now for complacency,’ Ms Sturgeon said.

‘We are seeing an increase in Covid rates right now, not just in Glasgow, although the biggest concentration is in Glasgow, but we are seeing an increase in several parts of the country.

‘Across Scotland as a whole new cases have risen over the course of the past week by more than 25 per cent.’

She also said the latest estimate for the R number – the average number of people infected by each person who contracts coronavirus – was that it ‘now might be slightly above one again’. 

Ms Sturgeon told the briefing that Scotland has recorded 414 new coronavirus cases and no deaths in the past 24 hours.

The daily test positivity rate was 1.9 per cent, up from 1.6 per cent the previous day.

There were 81 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down two from the previous day, and of these four people were in intensive care, down one from the day before.

So far 3,820,251 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination.

A mobile testing van hard at work in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow this week