Scotland's Sturgeon Warns That Tougher COVID-19 Measures May Follow Amid Surge In Cases

Scotland's Sturgeon Warns That Tougher COVID-19 Measures May Follow Amid Surge in Cases

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned on Friday that tougher social distancing measures could be introduced in the country over the coming days amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2020) Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned on Friday that tougher social distancing measures could be introduced in the country over the coming days amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases.

"Today I want to give the nation advanced notice that the coming days are likely to see some hard, but necessary decisions. If we want to avoid another full-scale lockdown, which all of us do, doing nothing almost certainly isn't an option," Sturgeon said at a briefing.

On Friday, the Scottish government announced that 203 new positive tests for COVID-19 were registered over the preceding 24 hours, slightly below the 290 new cases confirmed on Thursday, which was the largest single-day increase in Scotland since May.

A surge in new COVID-19 cases has been observed in Scotland, as well as the whole of the United Kingdom, since the start of September. Seven Scottish regions, including the city of Glasgow, are currently subject to local-level restrictions, where individuals are not permitted to travel to another household, or host members of another household at their residence.

In the UK as a whole, the Department of Health and Social Care registered 3,395 new positive tests for COVID-19 on Thursday. The country's case total stands at 381,614.