Five Things we Learned From Nicola Sturgeon's Latest Coronavirus Briefing
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Today at Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, updated parliament on the latest coronavirus situation in Scotland, with changes to international travel and vaccine passports among the most significant. Here are five things we learned today:
“Very encouraging” trend as new cases drop: the first minister cautiously welcomed the most recent figures, that show a 31% reduction in new cases over the last week. There have been 2,870 positive cases over the last 24 hours, with 1,107 people in hospital and 94 of in intensive care. There were also 18 new reported deaths, taking Scotland’s total to 8,396.
Steepest fall in cases among 20-24 year old age group: the first minister told us that cases have fallen by at least 10% across all age groups, with the steepest drop among the 20-24 year old age group, reflecting high uptake in vaccines - particularly second doses - over the last month.
Changes to international travel rules: similar to England, the ‘traffic light’ system will change with the green and amber levels “effectively being merged.” From 0400 tomorrow morning, eight countries - among them Egypt, Turkey and the Maldives - will be taken off the UK’s red list, meaning that fully vaccinated travellers will not need to self-isolate upon returning from these countries. From 4 October, the number of countries covered by the eligible vaccination programme will increase by 17, including Austrailia, Canada, Israel and New Zealand, making “it easier for people who have been fully vaccinated in those countries to travel to and from Scotland.”
Vaccine passports for nightclubs and football games becomes law on 1 October: as of 0500 on the morning of 1 October, nightclubs will be required by law to check for proof of double vaccination of everyone entering. However, larger events such as football games will merely be expected to carry out a “reasonable number of checks”, in an apparent concession to the unfeasibility of checking the vaccine status of everyone in a crowd of tens of thousands.
NHS Covid Status App available for download from 30 September: smartphone users will be able to download a digital copy of their vaccination status via a new NHS app from the end of this month, with each vaccination dose having a unique QR code that venues such as nightclubs will be expected by law to check from the following day. People can already apply for a paper copy of their vaccination status.