NICOLA Sturgeon has rejected opposition suggestions that the Scottish Government was pushed into a U-turn on post-lockdown schools reopenings.

Since John Swinney announced that pupils should prepare for full-time schooling from August with no social distancing – provided Covid-19 cases remain at a very low level – Tory and Labour figures have suggested they were responsible for the move.

Speaking in the Chamber, the Education Secretary explained that Scotland has made significant progress on fighting Covid-19 and added that has now been a sustained downward trend in deaths from the virus.

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Due to the continued low level of new cases, Swinney said the Scottish Government is “now able to update our planning assumptions” – and shift the focus to getting pupils back in classroom full-time in just two months’ time.

Previously, local authority plans for pupils returning to school for the new term indicated some children might only receive one or two days of in-person learning each week.

Adding to Swinney’s points on Twitter, the SNP leader said: “When it looked like the virus would make it impossible for kids to return to school full time in August, we developed a contingency. The contingency is still there should we need it. But our success in suppressing virus makes it possible now to plan for full time return.

“Achieving that aim depends on getting and keeping virus at very low levels - and that depends on all of us abiding by public health rules and taking a careful path out of lockdown. And it means following relevant advice on mitigation, surveillance and testing.”

The First Minister last week said she was more optimistic than she had been for a long time when it came to fighting Covid-19 – but added the virus has not gone away yet.