Coronavirus ‘doesn’t show much sign of abating’ despite lockdown, Swinney says

Coronavirus does not show much sign of “abating” in Scotland, the Deputy First Minister has said, as he refused to rule out tougher restrictions.

Scotland is facing “a very alarming situation” with the virus, according to John Swinney, whose comments come as the country has recorded its highest death toll so far in the pandemic in the last two days, where 93 Scots died from the virus.

Mr Swinney’s comments come as Scotland recorded three more deaths from coronavirus and 1,887 more cases.

Professional sport, along with manufacturing and construction work have been allowed to continue in this lockdown, whereas they were not in the first wave in March.

The Deputy First Minister said the decisive meeting of the cabinet on Monday saw ministers wondering if they had gone far enough to stop the spread.

Mr Swinney told Politics Scotland: “I don’t think I’m revealing a state secret when I say that the debate within cabinet was not whether we were going too far but whether we were going far enough.”

To illustrate the rise, Mr Swinney said Scotland recorded around 130 cases per 100,000 people on Boxing Day, but the figure shot up to 300 just 10 days later.

Despite the new measures put in place, Mr Swinney said: “It doesn’t show much sign of abating to any extent.

“We’re seeing case numbers which are hovering around 2,000 per day… so we’ve got an accelerating situation on our hands and we have to constantly review whether more restrictions are required.”

He added: “We remain open to considering further restrictions if they are necessary.”

The total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 4,968, as of Sunday.

Scottish Government statistics indicate the daily test positivity rate was 10%, up from 8.7% on Saturday, when 1,865 positive cases were recorded.

A total of 149,766 people have tested positive in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.

There are 1,598 people in hospital confirmed to have Covid-19, up two from 1,596 in 24 hours.

Of these patients, 123 are in intensive care – up by 14 from the previous day.

On Thursday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she could also not rule out stricter measures, after the number of people in hospital in Scotland exceeded the April peak of the pandemic.

At the coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh, she said: “For this lockdown to really be as effective as we need it to be we must radically reduce the number of interactions we are having, and that means reducing to a minimum when people are required to leave their homes.

“If we need to require more non-essential activities to close in order to achieve this, we will have to do that. That is a matter of ongoing review by the Scottish Government right now.”