Covid Latest: ‘Cautious optimism’ for Glasgow and East Renfrewshire and 318 new cases across Scotland

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today called for cautious optimism as Scotland continues to emerge out of lockdown.

Speaking about East Renfrewshire, which had been considered for Level 3 restrictions, Nicola Sturgeon said that the “situation may have stabilised” adding that case numbers “may have fallen very slightly”.

In Glasgow she said the seven-day average of new cases had increased, from 112 new case per 100,000 people to 137 new cases per 100,000 people.

But the First Minister stressed the “extensive public health efforts that are under way in Glasgow will take time to work through”.

She urged people in the city not to “lose heart”, saying that in the past two days or so “we do think we may have started to see signs that case numbers in Glasgow are stabilising”.

She added that the percentage of tests coming back positive in the Glasgow City Council area had been “fairly stable” in recent days at “around 4%”.

Data for both these areas will be monitored, along with figures for hospital and intensive care admissions, before a decision on restriction levels later this week.

Ms Sturgeon also said while case numbers were rising they were still “quite low relative to the situation we experienced in the early part of this year” – saying this also applied to hospital and ICU admissions – with the number of hospital patients reaching more than 2,000 in January as the second wave hit.

She added that the vaccination may allow the country to “change our response” to the virus.

She said: “Increasingly we are monitoring whether and to what extent vaccination might be breaking that link between rising case numbers and significantly rising cases of serious illness and death.

“And if that does prove to be the case, as we hope it will, we hope our response to this virus can evolve as well.”

Ms Sturgeon said this “might mean we don’t have to react quite so aggressively with tough restrictions in the face of rising case numbers”.

The First Minister added this would be a “key factor” in decisions going forward, both in relation to Glasgow – the only part of the Scotland still in Level 3 restrictions – and the country as a whole.

Covid in numbers: 

Scotland has recorded two coronavirus patient deaths and 318 new cases in the past 24 hours, Ms Sturgeon has announced.

It means the death toll under this daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is 7,666.

The First Minister told a Scottish Government coronavirus briefing the daily test positivity rate was 2%, down from 2.8% the previous day.

She said 97 people are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19, up three on the previous day. Of these, six were in intensive care, up one.

More than five million vaccine doses have now been administered in Scotland, with 3,138,366 first doses and 1,881,214 second doses.