Coronavirus: Visiting restrictions reintroduced in Glasgow area

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Restrictions on visiting other households are being reintroduced in Glasgow and two neighbouring areas after a rise in coronavirus cases.

The new rules will affect more than 800,000 people in Glasgow city, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.

They are being told not to host people from other households in their own homes or visit another person’s home.

The restrictions come into effect from midnight. They will last for two weeks, but will be reviewed after a week.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said 135 of the 314 new cases in Scotland over the last two days had been in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

She said Covid-19 continued to be a dangerous and potentially deadly virus.

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“It is spreading again, particularly in these three local authority areas, and we believe that, in these areas, it is spreading primarily as a result of household gatherings,” she said.

The restrictions will affect 633,120 people living in Glasgow, 95,530 in East Renfrewshire and 88,930 in West Dunbartonshire.

People living in those areas should also not visit someone else’s home, no matter where it is. The only exception to the restriction is for those in extended households.

“I think this should be a wake-up call, not just for people in Glasgow city, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire,” said the first minister.

“It should be a wake-up call for all of us to stick to the guidelines and stop this virus spreading any further or any faster.”

Ms Sturgeon said the reopening of schools had not been responsible for what had happened.

She said a “very small number” of school-age children had tested positive for the virus, and that this had mostly been driven by community transmission.

“Part of the reason that we have to take tough action, where necessary, to minimise community transmission is to stop that becoming a problem for schools,” she said.

She added that the preventative action was designed to keep schools open and businesses operating.

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Ms Sturgeon had raised concerns earlier in the day after the latest daily figures showed that 66 of the 154 new cases recorded in Scotland had been in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

That compared to an average of eight cases a day in the same area in the first two weeks of August.

The daily incidence rate of Covid-19 is now almost 33 new cases per 100,000 people in West Dunbartonshire, 22 in Glasgow and almost 19 in East Renfrewshire. The rate for the rest of Scotland is just over 10.

The local lockdown which was imposed in Aberdeen last month had been triggered by a rate of 14 cases per 100,000 population.