Scotland Urges Caution as It Takes First Steps Out of Lockdown

(Bloomberg) --

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon urged the country not to misinterpret a tentative relaxation of coronavirus restrictions and warned there’s still a “real risk” that the pandemic could run out of control again.

While Scots will be allowed to take more advantage of parks and other outdoor spaces from Friday, the country’s 5.5 million residents must not abuse the changes, Sturgeon told reporters in Edinburgh on Thursday.

“I do feel a bit nervous, I worry that these gradual changes we are making may lead to bigger changes in reality,” she said. “It’s important we don’t get ahead of ourselves.”

Scotland’s semi-autonomous government has diverged from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s call to open up the economy, saying that it was too dangerous to abandon the stay-at-home message.

Under the first phase of Sturgeon’s four-step plan, Scots will now be allowed to meet outside with one other household at a time, as long as they stick to the two-meter distancing rule. They’ll also be allowed to start using the country’s parks for recreation again, while some non-contact sports such as golf, tennis, bowls and fishing will also be permitted.

“Even so, in making changes at this stage, we have limited room for maneuver,” Sturgeon said. “So we need to get the balance right.”

Part of the concern is that weather forecasters are predicting balmy conditions for at least the next week and Sturgeon said she was worried that people would flock en masse to public spaces such as beaches.

In conjunction with the changes to the rules, the Scottish government is starting on Thursday a contact-tracing system that will allow it to assess when it’s safe to lift further measures.

While the number of confirmed Covid-19 in Scotland cases have continued to rise, the rate of increase has slowed significantly in recent weeks, official data shows. The number of confirmed cases stood at almost 15,300 on Thursday with 2,320 fatalities. Separate figures, which include deaths that are suspected of being related to the illness, show the number of fatalities at almost 3,800.

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