Nicola Sturgeon regrets not acting earlier on international travel

The First Minister made the admission today after announcing a significant ramping up restrictions yesterday with people coming into Scotland from overseas being subjected to mandatory hotel quarantine, in a bid to tackle new strains from entering the country.

Five cases of a new South African variant have been found in Scotland with all those infected having recently travelled from the country.

At First Minister's Questions this afternoon, Labour's Pauline McNeill asked what measures were being taken to ensure the cases would not spread further.

Sturgeon responded to McNeill's question to say protocols around isolation and contact tracing were in place for the cases identified and underlined that the public health message was not travel unless it is for an essential purpose adding "that is the most important thing we can do to minimise the risk of new variants coming into the country".

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon announces further 88 Covid deaths in Scotland

She then said: "I often get asked what are the mistakes I wish I could go back redo what we did and last summer not being tougher on international travel is one of the things I would turn the clock back on and do differently. I am not prepared to allow us to make that mistake again." 

The new travel restrictions, announced in Holyrood yesterday, are tougher than the arrangements due to come into force in the rest of the UK, where only those arriving from 30 “high-risk” countries are expected to quarantine.

Sturgeon told MSPs yesterday: “The firm view of the Scottish Government is that in order to minimise the risk of new strains coming into the country, managed quarantine must be much more comprehensive.

“I can therefore confirm today that we intend to introduce a managed quarantine requirement for anyone who arrives directly into Scotland, regardless of which country they have come from.”

The First Minister also said that she could not “unilaterally” impose such restrictions on people landing elsewhere in the UK and travelling to Scotland, but hoped the other administrations would work with the Scottish Government to reduce the number of people doing so.

Labour MSP Pauline McNeill asked the First Minister about the measures in place regarding the cases of the South African Covid variant found in Scotland

The UK Government has come under increasing pressure over its plan for a limited quarantine.

Yesterday it emerged that scientists had previously warned ministers that only a mandatory hotel quarantine could prevent new strains entering the country.

Two weeks ago, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) told Downing Street that “geographically targeted travel bans” would not be enough to stop the arrival of new strains.

In minutes from a meeting of Sage on January 21 – obtained by The Times – the scientists said: “No intervention, other than a complete, pre-emptive closure of borders, or the mandatory quarantine of all visitors upon arrival in designated facilities, irrespective of testing history, can get close to fully preventing the importation of new cases or new variants.

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“Reactive, geographically targeted travel bans cannot be relied upon to stop importation of new variants due to the lag between the emergence and identification of variants of concern, as well as the potential for indirect travel via a third country.”

Scientists fear some of the mutant strains of the virus may be less resistant to Covid-19 vaccines.

Meanwhile, a total of 8347 people have died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus, according to the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

The figures show 440 deaths relating to Covid-19 were registered between January 24 and 31, down 12 on the previous week.

Of these, the majority were in hospital at 301, with 97 in care homes, 38 at home or in a non-institutional setting and four in other institutions.

Glasgow City Council area recorded the highest number of deaths at 67, followed by North Lanarkshire and the City of Edinburgh council areas both at 40.

The statistics are published weekly and cover all deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

They differ from the lab-confirmed coronavirus deaths announced daily by the Scottish Government because the NRS figures include suspected or probable cases of Covid-19.

Scotland has recorded 88 deaths of coronavirus patients and 978 new cases in the past 24 hours, Sturgeon told MSPs.

The death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 6269.

The First Minister said the daily test positivity rate is 5.1%, down from 7.4% on Wednesday when 758 new cases were recorded.

There are 1871 people in hospital confirmed to have Covid-19, down 63 in 24 hours. Of these, the number of patients in intensive care was 128, down 12.

She said a 649,262 people have been given a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, up 38,484 from the previous day.

Sturgeon also told MSPs the number of vaccinations given on Tuesday was the highest daily total so far, and was 59% higher than the number of jabs given last Tuesday.

She went on to say 98% of older people living in care homes had had their first injection as well as 87% of those aged over 80 who are living in the community - although she said this number could be higher.

The First Minister added that more than a quarter (28%) of those aged between 75 and 79 and also now had the initial dose.

She said: "Let me thank everyone working across the country to get people vaccinated as quickly as possible, and also the public for the quite extraordinary uptake so far."