Aberdeen’s council leaders are anxiously waiting to find out which tier the city will be placed in – but are “confident” Covid-19 is under control.
Aberdeen is due to learn where it sits on the Scottish Government’s five-level scale – with local authority chiefs hopeful of being classed as “level one”, the second tier.
Douglas Lumsden, the co-leader of Aberdeen City Council, called for a decision to be made as soon as possible in order to provide “clarity” to businesses and allow them to plan ahead.
He explained the infection rate in the city is lower than other parts of Scotland – and urged the Scottish Government to take that into account when making its decision.
Mr Lumsden said: “It’s only a week until the tiers come into place and it’s still not clear which one we are going to be in.
“I would hope we are going to be in level one because the infection rate here is a lot lower than it is in other parts of the country. There is a downward trajectory.
“When you compare the infection rate here to other parts of the country, it is a lot lower.
“I am confident Aberdeen, having gone through the local lockdown, is one of the safest places in Scotland – if not the safest.
“I hope that is reflected in the decision.”
He added: “Businesses should not be in a situation where they don’t know what hours they can open or whether they can serve indoors.
“There needs to be some clarity really quickly because this is people’s jobs and livelihoods we are talking about here.
“We need to get things to as close as normal life as we can while keeping the virus under control.”
Meanwhile, a further 55 people in the Grampian area have tested positive for coronavirus – the highest daily number of recorded cases for the area in the past week.
The latest figures from the Scottish Government also show hospital admissions of Covid-19 patients in the north-east and Moray has risen from under five at the beginning of the month to 30.
Five of those in hospital are receiving treatment in intensive care.
The total number of positive cases for the region since the pandemic began is now 3,186.
Across Scotland, there have been 1,303 new coronavirus cases reported since Saturday. This is 19.0% of newly tested individuals.
A total of 1,016 people are in hospital after recently testing positive for the virus and 86 are in intensive care.
One Covid-19-linked death has been recorded in the past 24 hours. Scotland’s death toll is now 2,700.
Since the start of the outbreak, a total of 947,544 people in Scotland have been tested at least once. Of these people, 56,752 have tested positive and 890,792 were confirmed negative.
On Saturday, the Scottish Government confirmed there had been 11 further deaths linked to coronavirus registered and 1,433 new positive cases.
In a tweet, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Reminders abound just now that we are living through a global pandemic of a nasty virus. Scotland is not unique, and decisions the Scottish Government is taking, while not palatable, are not being taken lightly. They’re about trying to protect health and life in the most proportionate way possible.”
Reminders abound just now that we are living through a global pandemic of a nasty virus. Scotland is not unique, & decisions @scotgov is taking, while not palatable, are not being taken lightly. They’re about trying to protect health & life in the most proportionate way possible. https://t.co/D6c6Dp5s12
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 25, 2020
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