GLASGOW is to move down to level 2 on Saturday after more than eight months under strict restrictions, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister was giving a statement in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon where she told how the city will be able to move down to Level 2 from Friday at midnight.
This means that people in the city will be allowed to visit each other in their homes, indoor hospitality can reopen with alcohol, residents can now travel outwith Glasgow to other parts of Scotland and outdoor adult contact sports will return.
It comes as case numbers in Glasgow have "fallen slightly" from 146 per 100,000 people to 129.
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Sturgeon said that she was pleased that the situation in Glasgow "appeared to be stabilising" and that the major public health interventions in the city are having an impact.
Although hospital admissions are rising, Sturgeon added that, "the vaccination affect means at this stage they are not increasing as fast as they might have done from a similar level of cases earlier in the year".
Speaking to Parliament, the First Minister said: "It’s also important ofcourse we consider the harms caused by the virus alongside the other harms that ongoing restrictions cause.
"These include wider health harms, social harms and economic harms, and these wider harms are not insignificant in Glasgow give that it is now more than eight months for example we were last allowed to visit each other in our homes.
"Harms caused by virus alongside other harms, wider harms not insignificant in Glasgow, more than 8 months allowed to visit each other in our homes."
The First Minister added that with the support of the Incident Management Team, Glasgow will move down to level 2 from midnight on Friday into Saturday.
She said: "This means that people in Glasgow, as has been the case in most of the rest of Scotland since mid May, will be able to meet in homes in no more than six from a maximum of three households.
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"It also means that indoor licenced hospitality can reopen and that people can travel again between Glasgow and other parts of Scotland. A number of venues will also be permitted to reopen and outdoor adult contact sports can resume.
"These changes are significant as someone who lives in Glasgow I know they will make a huge difference to quality of life."
We’re currently in a transition to, we hope, a less restrictive way of tackling Covid. But we still have to be careful not to let the virus run ahead of vaccines. I’ll set out what this means (inc for Glasgow) at 2.15pm. To hear the reasoning as well as decisions, please tune in. https://t.co/Wt5Ubl1iS1
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) June 1, 2021
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