Scotland will end all legal Covid restrictions by March 21, including rules on face coverings and its vaccine passport scheme.
Nicola Sturgeon has announced a new framework which aims to return the country to a ‘more normal way of life.’
Covid passports will be the first measure to go and they will no longer be required to attend large events such as concerts and football matches from February 28.
The rest of the remaining legal restrictions will be phased out on March 21 – including the requirement for people to wear face masks in enclosed spaces.
Ms Sturgeon said people would still be ‘strongly recommended’ to wear masks in shops and on public transport.
Also ending on this date are rules that force businesses to collect customer details and take other measures to reduce the spread of the virus.
The First Minister gave the caveat that the changes would go ahead only assuming there were ‘no significant adverse developments’ in the fight against the virus over the next few weeks.
She also made clear the Scottish Government would ‘continue to ask those who test positive for Covid to isolate for the recommended period’ after Boris Johnson announced plans to move away from enforced quarantine yesterday.
He’s changing the rules so that people who get Covid are only recommended to self-isolate rather than being legally compelled to do so.
But, Ms Sturgeon said, isolating after testing positive ‘with a highly infectious virus, remains one of the most fundamental public health protections that we have available to us.’
Scotland will also continue to offer people free Covid tests when this provision is taken away in England on April 1.
However people are now being advised to take a test twice a week, rather than every time they meet up with people outside their household.
Ms Sturgeon said she was seeking clarity from the UK Government on how yesterday’s announcement in Westminster will affect funding for tests in Scotland.
‘We consider it important – in line with the principle of healthcare free at the point of use – that they should remain free of charge for any circumstance in which Government recommends testing,’ she said.
Summing up the changes, she added: ‘Governments must act lawfully, and that means we cannot impose legal restrictions when it is disproportionate to do so.
‘As the situation improves and the severity of the impact from Covid reduces, we are duty bound to remove legally imposed restrictions.
‘However, this should not be taken as a signal that Covid no longer presents any risk to health. It clearly does.’
Vaccines and better treatments have lowered the threat level from the virus to ‘medium’ under the new framework.
Scotland recorded 6,427 new cases of the virus, as well as 18 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday.
Ms Sturgeon said if infection levels continued to fall, and if hospital admissions do the same or ‘broadly stabilise’, the threat level could drop to ‘low’.
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