Nicola Sturgeon has announced a five-mile travel ban and ordered Aberdeen bars and restaurants to close.
The First Minister announced the reintroduction of lockdown measures in the Granite City this afternoon, after a spike in coronavirus cases.
The restrictions will be reviewed after a week but could be extended if the outbreak is not under control, Ms Sturgeon warned.
She told the daily press briefing she hoped the government would be in a better position to judge the scale and trajectory of the Aberdeen outbreak by then, and may be able to lift restrictions.
The Scottish Government’s resilience committee met with NHS Grampian, Police Scotland and Aberdeen City Council this morning.
Addressing the country at the podium, the first minister said: “I want to assure you the decisions we agreed are not being taken lightly.
“But we are at a stage of this pandemic where extreme caution is necessary and in my view sensible.
“I am also mindful of the need to act quickly and decisively if we are to succeed in our aim of keeping transmission to elimination levels as possible and also to protect our priority of getting young people back to school.
“That is one of the very important reasons we are taking firm action now.
“I can confirm it was agreed, albeit extremely reluctantly, to reimpose restrictions on the Aberdeen City Council area.”
New regulations will be published this afternoon, meaning all indoor and outdoor hospitality premises in the city must close by 5pm today.
Takeaways and hotel restaurants, providing meals for residents, will be allowed to continue trading.
The rules will be backed by government regulations meaning those flouting the rule could face punishment but Ms Sturgeon said “given the responsible way they have behaved in recent days” that hospitality bosses would “act voluntarily and continue to be responsible”.
Ms Sturgeon also announced a five-mile travel ban was back in force, with exceptions for those travelling for work and education.
People outside the city have also been advised not to travel to Aberdeen.
Those already visiting will be allowed to stay but are asked to comply with the new restrictions and to take extra care when returning home.
A ban on meeting other households – except for those in extended household arrangements – has also been reintroduced.
The so-called cluster of coronavirus in Aberdeen was first traced to four people in The Hawthorn Bar, Holburn Street.
Ms Sturgeon confirmed 54 cases have now been confirmed as being linked to the pub.
Test And Protect teams have now traced 191 people who have been in close contact with those affected though the first minister warned “we expect that number to rise over the course of today”.
More than half of all new coronavirus positive patients were in Grampian, figures have shown.
A total of 64 cases were discovered in Scotland in the last 24 hours, with 36 of them believed to be in the north-east – although it is not yet clear how many were connected to The Hawthorn Bar outbreak.
Ms Sturgeon added: “This high number of cases considerably heightens our concerns that we are dealing with a significant outbreak in Aberdeen that may involve some community transmission.
“The main link in this cluster so far has been the Hawthorn Bar however more detailed analysis by NHS Grampian and Test And Protect has shown this one venue does not account for all the positive cases.
“In total now more than 20 other licensed premises are part of the contact tracing picture.
“When we take all of that information together we have been led to the conclusion that we must now take further immediate steps on a highly precautionary basis to prevent further spread and to give the Test And Protect teams the best possible chance of successfully breaking the chain of transmission.”
