Summer holidays abroad ‘highly unlikely’ for Scots this year, says Nicola Sturgeon

First minister confirms phased return of schools from Monday, but warns no further relaxations until March

Holidays abroad are “highly unlikely” for Scots this summer and even breaks in Scotland are unlikely to be possible at Easter, first minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned.

Her comments came as she confirmed that the phased return of children to schools in Scotland will begin on 22 February as planned, starting with pre-schoolers, primary years 1-3 and some secondary pupils who need access to classrooms for practical work.

In an update to the Scottish parliament, Ms Sturgeon said there will be no wider relaxation of coronavirus restrictions north of the border before the start of March.

And she said that exit from social and economic restrictions will be “more cautious” than it was last summer, to ward off the risk of a new flare-up of Covid-19 and a return to lockdown.

“Getting children back to education may mean the rest of us living with some restrictions for longer,” she told MSPs.

The Scottish government is due next week to publish a strategic framework for the gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions north of the border.

And Ms Sturgeon warned that it will not give the all-clear for families to book holidays.

“We are very likely to advise against booking Easter holidays either overseas or within Scotland, as it is highly unlikely that we will have been able to fully open hotels or self-catering accommodation by then,” she said.

“However, for the summer, while it’s still highly unlikely that overseas holidays will be possible or advisable, staycations might be. But this will depend on the data nearer the time.”

The first minister told the Holyrood assembly that her cabinet had agreed at a meeting this morning to make schools the priority for a cautious easing of restrictions.

But she set no firm date for the return of all pupils, saying other year groups were unlikely to go back to the classroom before 15 March.

And she said that for the rest of society, “the core stay-at-home requirement will remain in place until at least the beginning of March – and possibly for a further period beyond that.”

Within minutes of Ms Sturgeon’s remarks, Visit Scotland sent a marketing email urging prospective visitors to “check out our favourite city hotspots, from romantic castles to exotic botanical gardens”.

And Edinburgh airport said in a statement: “We agree with the first minister that we have to be driven by data rather than dates so hopefully this means the government is finally ready to look at a route map to recovery, something we’ve been calling on for months.

“If we are going to use New Zealand as a blueprint on closure then we must also follow their act in support for aviation. Aviation facilitates many things, such as tourism which contributes more than £6bn to the economy. We cannot afford to throw that away because we failed to invest in protecting our hard-earned direct connectivity.”

Ms Sturgeon said that Scotland’s vaccination programme “is already having an effect” in reducing deaths in Scottish care homes, which have fallen from 34 per cent of fatalities in December to 18 per cent now.

Data showed that “lockdown is working”, with daily new cases in Scotland falling from 2,300 in the first week of January to 810 in the most recent figures.

“We are in a race between the virus and the vaccine,” she said. “And I think we do have much more reason to be hopeful now than we did just a few weeks ago that this is a race that we can and we will ultimately win if we are prepared to stick to it.”

But she warned that setting “arbitrary” dates for a return to normality would risk a new flare-up of disease and “another lockdown later this year”.

Parents should not use their children’s return to school as an excuse for socialising at the playground gate or stopping working from home and going back to their workplace, warned Ms Sturgeon.

“Given the risk posed by new variants of this virus, it is really hard for me to overstate the necessity of being careful, cautious and gradual as we exit this lockdown if we want to avoid another lockdown later this year,” she said.

“That means for now, all of us continuing to abide by the stay-at-home requirement.”

Ms Sturgeon said that the Scottish government will provide local authorities and schools with an additional £14m as part of a wider £100m package to accelerate school recovery, while all teachers and lecturers involved in awarding national qualifications will receive a £400 one-off payment.

Pupils are due to return to classrooms in England from 8 March, but it is not yet known whether the reopening will be staggered.