What are the Covid restrictions in Scotland now and over the Christmas period?

Citizens told to limit festive socialising to no more than three households

First minister Nicola Sturgeon has imposed further social restrictions on the people of Scotland to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus over Christmas.

Football matches and other outdoor live events will be capped at 500 spectators for three weeks from 26 December to prevent them becoming outbreak hotspots.

Large New Year street parties, including Edinburgh’s famous Hogmanay celebration, will be cancelled, while numbers at concerts and other indoor events will be limited to 100 standing or 200 seated.

“This will of course make sports matches, including football, effectively spectator-free over this three-week period,” said Ms Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.

“I know how disappointing this will be for those looking forward to these events. Difficult though it is, please follow this advice over New Year – minimise Hogmanay socialising as much as you can.”

The Scottish National Party leader also said more restrictions would be imposed on Scotland’s hospitality venues immediately after Boxing Day, introducing a table service-only requirment from 27 December for venues serving alcohol.

“And we will also ask indoor hospitality and leisure venues to ensure one-metre distance, not within, but between groups of people who are attending together,” she said.

Otherwise though, the picture remains the same.

“We are not changing the advice for Christmas I set out last week… I want to be clear to individuals that the advice I gave out last week is the advice that will take us through Christmas,” Ms Sturgeon.

Her last announcement on Tuesday 14 December saw her urge Scots to limit their socialising to three households before and after Christmas.

At that point, Ms Sturgeon insisted she was “not asking anyone to cancel Christmas” and “not proposing limits on the size of household gatherings” but advised citizens to rein in their social commitments over the course of the festive season, stressing it was not a legal requirement to do so but instead just “strong advice” to be considered.

“Please do not think of it as optional,” she added.

Care home visits were also limited to two households, with all visitors asked to present a negative Covid test before entering to reduce the risk to vulnerable residents.

Businesses were meanwhile told to encourage their staff to work from home where possible and to implement “a return to the kind of protections in place at the start of the pandemic”.

That meant Scottish shops enforcing social distancing and putting up protective screens and pubs, bars and restaurants all having to implement systems to prevent crowding and make sure customers’ details are taken for contact tracing.

Vaccine booster appointments to beat Omicron were being made available to all over-18s through online booking, with the programme given priority over the flu vaccine and “additional capacity” being made available, Ms Sturgeon assured Holyrood.

“Just as vaccines started to win this race, the virus learned to run faster. That means we must deliver boosters even faster,” she told MSPs.

“This is all the more important in light of early data telling us that the protection we have against omicron infection with just one or two doses is significantly lower than it is for delta – we need a booster jab to ensure a substantial level of protection against Omicron.”

Scotland had just recorded a further 110 confirmed Omicron cases on the day Ms Sturgeon announced her restrictions. The total has since soared to 1,111.

Following her announcement, deputy first minister John Swinney warned BBC Radio Scotland that further coronavirus restrictions might “potentially” be needed before Christmas if the situation worsens.

“Potentially that could be the case, but we want to avoid that,” he said.

“We hope we have done enough in the announcements that were made yesterday and we hope members of the public and businesses will work with us in a co-operative spirit to make sure we can take these provisions forward.”

That came after Professor James Chalmers of Dundee University said the new measures put in place by Ms Sturgeon may slow the spread of Omicron but they are not enough in themselves to reverse the rise in infections.

“I think the government need to be ready next week, as we get more data on the vaccine protection against severe disease and other gaps that currently need to be filled in terms of our knowledge, to think about what other measures may be required,” Professor Chalmers said.

“If this is as bad as we think it is going to be, there may still be other measures required over the Christmas and the new year period.

“The modelling looks like in the worst case scenario we could have a really difficult winter, and we can’t allow the health service to be overwhelmed.

“We need to be prepared and we need to prepare the public that we may require further restrictions.”