COVID FEARS
Coronavirus Scotland: Glasgow local lockdown restrictions likely to be extended for at least another week
by Ewan PatonGLASGOW'S coronavirus lockdown looks likely to be extended for another week, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed today.
The First Minister said a decision will be made later today after a Scottish Government review meeting.
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It means that locals still won't be able to visit other households as cases continued to spike.
In the past 24 hours, another 70 cases across the country have been announced.
Ms Sturgeon did caveat that announcement by saying that the statistics may not be entirely complete due to testing result delays.
The First Minister said: "We've seen a significant rise in cases in recent days in Lanarkshire, which emphasises again the importance of the decision announced on Friday to restrict private indoor gatherings across north and south lanarkshire.
"So if you live in either of these council areas you should not at this stage be visiting any other households at all.
"The restrictions for north and south Lanarkshire are, of course, the same as the ones that were already in place in Greater Glasgow - Glasgow city, East Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire.
"We hope these restrictions will help reduce transmission in these areas and will play a part, given how populace these areas are, in lowering our overall national figures.
"There will be a meeting later today to discuss the up to date position in Greater Glasgow and Clyde."
Last week, similar restrictions were extended to Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire.
The ban on visiting friends and family at home is also in place in East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.
On Friday, the same local lockdown restrictions were then extended to all of Lanarkshire.
Dr Gregor Smith added: "What coming through from the data we've been charting, particularly over the last week, is that there may begin to be a slowing in the rise of cases over that point in time, but it's still too early to tell whether these measure are having a full effect yet.
"You've got to remember the incubation cycle for this virus is up to 14 days, therefore it can be quite a significant length of time before you start to see the effects of any intervention actually starting to play through."
Experts earlier feared Glasgow will become a Covid-19 hotspot this month.
Imperial College London's new online calculator says there is a 92 per cent probability o the city being a hotspot before September 12 - rising to a 99 per cent chance at the end of the month.
Schools, restaurants and bars across Glasgow continue to close as test and protect trackers identify potential outbreaks.
It comes as the number of people that can attend social gatherings in the UK have been slashed following a rise in coronavirus cases.
New rules have come into play TODAY in Scotland, England and Wales from Monday.
A maximum of just six people from two households are allowed to meet together in Scotland - indoors or outdoors.
Nicola Sturgeon announced the rules changes last week at the Scottish Parliament, as she outlined the Scottish Government's decision to impose tighter restrictions once more.
Ms Sturgeon said: "It is necessary to tighten some existing restrictions, to help curb the spread of the virus."