Warning Covid rules 'may not be eased in some areas' next week

Areas of Scotland with rising coronavirus case numbers may not be moved down a level when restrictions are assessed, health secretary Humza Yousaf has suggested.

Currently, Glasgow is the only part of the country still in level three, whilst the rest of mainland Scotland is in level two.

Level two areas are due to be moved to level one as part of the lockdown easing roadmap on June 7, but Yousaf indicated that it may not be possible to do so in locations where there are concerns over case numbers.

“It may not be the entire country moving to level one,” Yousaf told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Monday.

“I think people would understand where there are rising case numbers, where there is rising test positivity… it may be the case that parts of the country move to level one but actually other parts of the country we decide to keep in level two.”

The health secretary added: “I must be quite frank, there’s other parts of the country that clearly from the data, give us cause for concern.”

An announcement on whether level two areas in Scotland can be moved down a level is due to be made by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.

Yousaf also said that effort is being put into increasing the attendance of young people at their Covid-19 vaccination appointments.

“Unfortunately the weekend before there was a large number of ‘did not attends’ at the Hydro,” he said.

“On Thursday and Friday certainly the data that came through to me that was verified certainly show that the numbers of ‘did not attends’ have drastically fallen, which is positive.

“There’s still a lot of people not attending and so we’re putting a lot of effort into that younger cohort.”