The UK Government has faced a surge in online petitions as the coronavirus crisis concerns the population.
A number of petitions have received extremely high traffic, some with thousands of signatures per hour.
An announcement from the Petitions Committee said: "Thank you to everyone who’s starting or signing petitions at the moment.
Thank you to everyone who’s starting or signing petitions at the moment.
— Petitions Committee (@HoCpetitions) March 18, 2020
We’re working to check the new petitions you’ve submitted as quickly as we can, but we’ve got a lot more than usual, so it might take us longer than our usual 7 days. https://t.co/qkQPpmeXka
"We’re working to check the new petitions you’ve submitted as quickly as we can, but we’ve got a lot more than usual, so it might take us longer than our usual seven days."
One petition, titled "Include self-employed in statutory sick pay during Coronavirus", has received almost 600,000 signatures at the time of writing. The amount required for parliamentary debate is 100,000. The petitions website says it is waiting for eight days before it will give a debate date.
Another calls for the Government to close schools/colleges down for an appropriate amount of time amidst Covid-19. It has received more than 677,000 signatures.
READ MORE: Scotland's schools to close and may not re-open before summer
Earlier today, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the closure of all Scottish schools at the end of this week.
It is expected Boris Johnson will make an announcement regarding schools later today.
All current petitions can be viewed here.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here