Five-mile limit lifted as Aberdeen lockdown begins to ease

A number of lockdown measures have now been lifted in Aberdeen, including the travel limit and restrictions on indoor meetings.

People can now travel further than five miles for non-essential or leisure purposes, while restrictions on gatherings and hospital and care home visits have been eased.

While residents are allowed to meet others indoors again, they must follow national guidelines. This includes social distancing measures and no more than three households and eight people meeting inside at a time.

People will have to wait until Wednesday before they can visit pubs or restaurants, which will reopen once they have undergone an environmental health check.

Aberdeen was put back on lockdown following a spike in Covid cases almost three weeks ago, with the hospitality sector ordered to close after an outbreak linked to pubs and restaurants.

The move to return the city broadly in line with the rest of Scotland by easing restrictions was confirmed on Sunday evening, following a Scottish Government Resilience Room meeting.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said at the Scottish Government briefing on Monday: “Over the past week there has been a continued decline in the number of new cases being recorded in Aberdeen and more widely in the Grampian health board area.

“We were, therefore, able to agree yesterday the lifting of restrictions which were put in place for Aberdeen city two-and-a-half weeks ago.

“That means that from today our advice on travel and on meeting up in people’s homes is the same in Aberdeen as it is in all other parts of Scotland.

“We are no longer recommending that people in Aberdeen should stick to a five-mile limit when travelling for leisure or recreation and people in Aberdeen are now able to go into other people’s houses.

“However, and this is obviously important, they must continue to stick to the national guidance for this and, just to remind people what that is, only three households can meet indoors and the maximum group size indoors is eight.”

Sturgeon thanked people in the city for complying with the local lockdown measures.

She added: “These restrictions have been effective in beating back this outbreak, for the simple reason that you have all complied very well with them.

“That’s also the reason that we’re now able to lift these restrictions.

“I know how difficult this last two-and-a-half week period must have been for everyone in the city and you have my grateful thanks for that compliance.”