Coronavirus: Scotland to cancel large gatherings in bid to ease pressure on services, Sturgeon says

First minister says decision has been taken to ‘protect resilience’ of frontline services

Large gatherings are to be cancelled in a bid to ease pressure on Scotland’s​ public services caused by coronavirus, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

The Scottish first minister said she would recommend cancelling gatherings of more than 500 people to protect frontline services as it was now “inappropriate” to continue as normal.

The advice on cancellations is expected to start from Monday, Ms Sturgeon added.

“This is a decision that we are basing on resilience issues and not simply on the action that we are required to take to reduce the spread of the virus,” she said at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday.

The announcement came amid growing pressure on the UK government to intensify its efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19.

The UK is expected to shift into the “delay” phase of its coronavirus action plan on Thursday following an emergency meeting of the government’s Cobra committee.

In her statement, Ms Sturgeon explained the cancellation advice would be introduced to reduce the pressure on frontline services, such as police and health workers.

“Mass gatherings are required to be policed, they require to have emergency ambulance cover, they require the services of our voluntary health services, and at a time when we need to be reducing the pressures on these frontline workers in order to free them up on the significant challenge that lies ahead, I do think it is inappropriate that we continue as normal,” she said.

Ms Sturgeon added that the decision had been taken “principally to protect the resilience of frontline workers”.

“Our emergency services, like all parts of our workforce, are likely to suffer from higher than normal sickness absence rates in the weeks and months ahead and our NHS in particular will be under significant pressure,” the first minister said.

“So it’s important that we protect that resilience as much as possible and reduce any unnecessary burden on these frontline workers at this stage.”

The Scottish government has not yet recommended the closure of schools or universities but Ms Sturgeon said the option would be “kept under constant review”.

Ahead of the latest announcement of confirmed coronavirus cases in Scotland, she said the government was expecting a “sharp rise in cases”.

The decision came as Ireland announced it would close all schools and urged people to cancel public gatherings due to coronavirus.

Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s premier, said the virtual lockdown would start at 6pm tonight and remain in place for two weeks.

Childcare facilities will also be temporarily shut until 29 March and people will be encouraged to work from home, Mr Varadkar said.

It also followed criticism of the UK government’s “complacent attitude” to the coronavirus outbreak in recent weeks.

On Wednesday night, Professor John Ashton, the former regional director of Public Health England, issued a furious response to the government’s measures to tackle the spread of the virus.

“We’ve got a complacent attitude, it feels wooden and academic, and we’ve wasted a month when we should have been engaging with the public,” Mr Ashton told BBC Newsnight.

“If this now spreads the way it looks likely to spread, there will not be enough hospital beds and people will have to be nursed at home.

“We should have gotten a grip on this a month ago.”

Additional reporting by PA