BORIS Johnson’s government has rejected requests put in by the leaders of Scotland and Wales to take a “tougher four-nations approach” to the Omicron variant.
The first cases of the new coronavirus variant in Scotland were announced by the Edinburgh government on Monday morning.
The six people to have contracted the Omicron variant are all working with contact tracers to identify the source of the infection, with some of them not having any link to travel.
Nicola Sturgeon said this likely meant that there was community transmission of the Omicron variant happening in Scotland.
Fears of the impact the variant prompted her and her counterpart in Wales, Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford, to write to Boris Johnson to urge a change in tactics to fight the spread of the virus.
READ MORE: Don't favour England over devolved nations 'again', Boris Johnson told
The two First Ministers called on the UK Government to provide financial assistance to the devolved nations in the event of further lockdowns, for an emergency Cobra meeting to be convened, and for tougher travel restrictions to be brought in.
Downing Street seems to have already rejected all of those calls, within hours of them being announced.
Asked about the request for a Cobra meeting, the UK Government’s spokesperson said: “We will confirm any plans for a Cobra meeting in the normal way. Currently, there isn't one scheduled. We obviously speak to our devolved administration counterparts very regularly and we will continue to coordinate our response with them.”
Asked about tougher restrictions for people arriving in the UK from abroad, they said: “We believe that the approach we've taken is a proportionate one to the evidence that we currently have available about this variant.”
They said stricter measures would “have a detrimental effect on the travel industry and indeed those planning to go traveling, so our response needs to be balanced based on what we know currently”.
They added: “We're taking a precautionary approach. We believe it's responsible and proportionate. Obviously, we will keep our measures under review as evidence about this variant increases.”
The spokesperson also said that the Government was “not planning to change our approach” to financial support through potential lockdowns.
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