Inspired perhaps by Boris Johnson’s announcement of the approaching end of pandemic restrictions in England, the Scottish Government has said its Covid powers are to be extended for a further six months. The current restrictions in Scotland cover self-isolation, mask mandates, vaccine passports and a requirement for businesses and services to take steps to minimise the spread of the virus. BBC News has more.
Legislation mandating face coverings and vaccine passports was due to expire on February 28th.
However, this looks set to be pushed back to September 24th, with Deputy First Minister John Swinney saying it was important to keep options on the table.
Scottish ministers will continue to assess the rules every three weeks, with the next review on February 22nd.
The move came hours after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the end date for restrictions in England could be brought forward to later this month.
England’s restrictions, including the legal requirement for self-isolation, are due to expire on March 24th – but Mr Johnson said this could happen “a full month early”. …
Mr Swinney stressed that this did not mean curbs “would necessarily remain in force until September”, and that they would continue to be reviewed on a three-weekly basis.
However, the Deputy First Minister said ministers “believe it is necessary to retain the availability of these baseline measures for now while we review our ongoing response to Covid”.
Mr. Swinney also questioned whether Mr. Johnson’s announcement was based on clinical advice or was “more to do with the survivability of the current Prime Minister in office”.
Supreme Leader Nic Sturge-on claimed “basic protections” had helped get the virus under control and could help keep it under control in future. However, with recent meta-analyses of the effectiveness of lockdowns and face masks finding little or no benefit, and a woeful lack of real-world data that vaccine passports reduce transmission, it’s not clear what evidence she was relying on for these claims.
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