Question reference: S5W-29930
- Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 15 June 2020
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Current status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 July 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of representations from Professor Chris Isles regarding the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in Dumfries and Galloway.
Answer
We are making real and sustained progress in supressing the virus in Scotland but we must remain cautious and vigilant. COVID-19 remains a serious threat and any resurgence could rapidly undo the progress we have made.
We do not want to keep any part of the country in any lockdown measures for longer than necessary which is why we published Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scotland’s Route Map through and out of the crisis on the 21 May. It sets out the criteria to be met for progressing through the route map phases.
When the Route Map was published, the number of cases of coronavirus in Scotland was relatively high and community transmission was widespread. Since that time, we have carefully changed our lockdown measures following the Route Map phases, informed by the evidence on our progress in suppressing the epidemic in Scotland.
While this is real progress we must continue to work to suppress the number of infections across Scotland. We continue to monitor the virus, and data is published daily on the Scottish Government website by Health Board.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-trends-in-daily-data/
National Records of Scotland weekly COVID-deaths report also has a breakdown by Health Board.
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-report-week-25.pdf
We will continue to keep the option of geographical variation in Scotland under review.