JOHN Swinney is “optimistic” Glasgow will be moved from Level 2 to Level 3 next week.
The Deputy First Minister said that the current public health measures in place in the city, including enhanced testing and ramping up of the vaccine rollout, are being “successful” in suppressing the virus.
On Friday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that Glasgow would be kept under stricter restrictions for a further week, with a decision on whether or not the city will change levels to be given in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday.
This morning, the Cabinet Secretary for Covid-19 recovery explained how the situation was unfolding and said there are “encouraging signs”.
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On BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Swinney was asked if Glasgow is likely to be moved out of level 3 unless there are “substantial” changes to case rates.
Swinney said: “That’s what the First Minister said on Friday, that’s what we want to do and that’s the direction we think we’re heading in.
“We think this extra week was necessary to try and give us the advantage of suppressing the virus, but we are optimistic that we will be able to do that at the end of this week.
“But of course it needs people to sustain the very good engagement there has been over the weekend and the vaccination programme and the testing activity, there has been a huge amount of activity that’s gone on, a lot of partnership work with Glasgow City Council and Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, a huge amount of effort on the ground from home care staff to support that effort and it’s really encouraging signs.”
Swinney also said that as such a large proportion of the population have now been vaccinated and “early information” has shown that those who have had a jag do not tend to get as seriously ill if they are infected by a variant of Covid, but that the data was still under review.
He added: “I think this does change the dynamics of decision making as to whether or not we have to always follow the levels of cases, which has dominated the way we have approached this in the past or whether the cause of the extent of the success of the vaccination programme and the lower levels of hospitalisation.
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“We can take a different set of decisions in the future and obviously that is very much part of the review we are undertaking at the present moment.”
With Glasgow set to host a fan zone for 6000 football fans per day in Glasgow Green during the Euro 2020 tournament from June 11, Swinney was probed on whether or not this would affect decision making.
He said: “We think the measures we are taking, well evidence demonstrates that they are being successful, so if we continue on that effort and we sustain that presence in the locality, because the fan zones you talk about, you know they are going to be very regulated environments, so there will be significant constraints applied about who can get in and what testing has got to be undertaken to enable that to be sustained.
“So, combining that with what we do in individual localities to make sure that we’re taking all the necessary steps to suppress the virus, I’m confident that we can achieve that but we can only do that if we follow the sustained approach that we have taken to make sure that we can keep the virus under control.”
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