Nicola Sturgeon has outlined her “optimism” over restrictions easing further on August 9 ahead of next week’s review.
Speaking at a Covid briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Ms Sturgeon highlighted the progress Scotland has made with regards to clamping down on Covid over the past month.
The country has gone from occupying five of the top 10 local authority hotspots across the UK to now not even featuring in the top 100.
Hoping to reduce Covid cases across Scotland and pave the way for restrictions to be lifted further, she highlighted how important vaccination efforts have been – recommending that pregnant women also get the jab.
With decisions on whether further lockdown measures are being lifted scheduled next week, she said there are “really strong grounds” for hope ahead of the meeting.
Having placed the country into ‘Level 0’ of the Covid restriction plan earlier this month, the shift would take the country even closer to normality.
She said: “What we’ll be doing between now and then is weighing up the different factors that will inform that decision.
“Several of these factors give us really strong grounds for hope.
“We have seen some very positive developments recently, and that does give us, certainly gives me, grounds for optimism that we will be able to continue our progress, out of restrictions.”
What is the current Covid situation?
The current Covid case numbers are the most promising they have been for some time.
Nicola Sturgeon announced this afternoon that while the virus continues to spread across the country, figures can give the country “hope” for the future.
Claiming that the 4,000,658 people who have now had their first dose of the vaccine and 3,108,928 who have had their second are a key factor to falling numbers.
As of yesterday, there have been a further 1,044 new positive cases and 472 people are currently in hospital with 63 requiring intensive care.
While seven people have died from Covid, bringing the total number of people in Scotland to 7,866.
2,436,205 people in Scotland have been tested for #coronavirus
The total confirmed as positive has risen by 1,044 to 342,059
Sadly 7 more patients who tested positive have died (7,866 in total)
Latest update ➡️ https://t.co/bZPbrCoQux
Health advice ➡️ https://t.co/l7rqArB6Qu pic.twitter.com/NnJ9fAxTrE— Scottish Government (@scotgov) July 27, 2021
A total of 342,059 Scottish people have caught coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
The figures were welcomed as positive news for Scotland after weeks of dramatically high numbers following the Euros, by Professor Jason Leitch
With August 9 fast approaching, news of falling case numbers bode well for further easing of Covid restrictions.