Indoor gatherings and house parties are believed to be the transmitter of the recent spike in Covid-19 cases.
Glasgow has reintroduced lockdown restrictions regarding indoor visits as the city sees a spike in Covid-19 cases.
First minister Nicola Sturgeon communicated today that indoor meetings, most notably meeting family and friends indoors will be strictly prohibited from today. This will mean that people in Glasgow will no longer be allowed to host people from other households inside their homes.
Separate households in Glasgow will be banned from meeting indoors although will still be able to meet outdoors, a strict measure previously introduced in original lockdown measures back in March.
Pubs, restaurants, gyms, sports facilities, cinemas, museums and non-essential shops are allowed to remain open as of now, however, it appears that visiting people from other households will not be allowed.
The announcement comes as Glasgow saw a spike of 66 cases of Covid-19 in the city the day prior.
Ms Sturgeon said that the recent spikes in Glasgow over the weekend led her no choice but to take immediate action in order to halt a possible second wave of Covid-19 in Glasgow and throughout Scotland.
The restrictions will affect all 633,120 people living in the Glasgow City Council area.
While restrictions mainly affect indoor gatherings, it has been advised for Glasgow residents to not travel any more than five miles for reasons of leisure. Travel for anything other than education or work purposes is also not advised.
The restrictions come as the First Minister announced indoor gatherings and house parties were the main transmitters of the recent spike of Covid-19 cases in Glasgow.
People visiting Glasgow, are allowed to remain for their intended stay but must follow all restrictions in Glasgow and have been advised to take extra care as they return to their home location outside Glasgow.
Other local council areas in the outskirts of Glasgow, such as West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire will also have these restrictions. There has been no information on if this will be implemented in East Dunbartonshire, and North and South Lanarkshire, but residents have however been told not to travel into the city to visit other households and vice versa.
The new restrictions will be reviewed by the government in a week’s time and may be relaxed or extended according to Covid-19 cases in the area.
Police Scotland announced that they will be taking the new restrictions very seriously and have urged the public to follow the rules or face full force of the law. Police also urged members of the public to report any suspicion of individuals or households making a breach of the new restrictions.
The news of introducing local restrictions for Glasgow was hinted at in the Covid-19 daily briefing by Nicola Sturgeon on Monday 31 August when spikes of Covid-19 were first reported to media outlets over the previous weekend. That press conference also revealed an increase of 69 confirmed cases the day prior in the area.
Previously up to eight people from three different households could meet indoors and stay overnight, provided two metre social distancing rules were followed as well as cleaning surfaces and regularly washing hands were followed. Outside up to 15 people from five different households could meet up in outdoor settings, such as parks with two metre social distancing rules followed. These rules will still apply to all local authority areas outside of Glasgow City.
Glasgow is the second city and local authority area in Scotland to reintroduce certain lockdown restrictions following Aberdeen who were under a local lockdown on 5 August where restrictions remained in place for three weeks.
