First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will reveal the next turn in the road out of lockdown tomorrow.
The first minister confirmed she will provide further information on when some restrictions – including stay-at-home and those impacting retail and hospitality – will be eased when she addresses Holyrood.
Details are also expected on the further relaxation to meeting other households.
Rise in cases could be down to return of schools
At today’s daily briefing, it was announced there have been 456 positive cases in the last 24 hours.
Ms Sturgeon admitted the increase in cases could be linked to the return of schools.
She said it showed there is no room for complacency, and that our “room for manoeuvre is limited”.
However, she confirmed that she will lay out plans for further easing lockdown to MSPs tomorrow.
The first minister said: “I will seek to set out some details of what changes we hope to make in early April… then what further easing we might then expect to see in late April, and then mid-May and in much less detail beyond that.
“We can’t provide certainty on everything at this stage.”
But Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has challenged Ms Sturgeon to reveal a detailed lockdown exit plan, telling her to “stop putting Scotland’s future on hold”.
Mr Ross, in a speech to the Scottish Tory conference, said “another half-hearted, half-written holding document” will not do.
No room for complacency
Ms Sturgeon said: “It is important to note that over the past seven days we have actually seen a slight increase in cases and we will be monitoring that carefully and it does provide us with a reminder that there is still no room for complacency and that our room for manoeuvre is limited.”
Children in P1-P3 returned to school on February 22 and were joined yesterday by those in P4-P7. Secondary school pupils returning to in-class learning part time.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Can we rule out a link between schools partially reopening and a bit of an uptick in cases? No, I don’t think we can.
“And that will not be because particularly of transmission within schools but we know that when schools open there is just a little bit more movement generally as parents take children to school for example.”
Chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith said the rise in cases were not as high as he had wondered if they might be, and stressed he was not “overly concerned.”
He said: “We knew that as schools went back it a always going to be the possibility that, as people could go about their lives more, there would be more contact of one sort or another and that could lead to more transmission and I think that is exactly what we are seeing being played through in the figures just now.”
Vaccine concerns
The first minister also addressed concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine after a number of countries, including the Netherlands and Republic of Ireland, paused their use of it.
She told the briefing that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency had “confirmed to us that there is no current evidence of an increase in blood clots” caused by the jab.
She added that there is “significant and growing evidence of the benefits of vaccination reducing death, illness and we hope now reducing transmission as well”.