Pubs in Scotland are closed again, but are coronavirus restrictions even working?

Editorial: Infection rates have been rising broadly everywhere, including places in lockdown. So why is tightening restrictions the answer when it hasn’t worked so far?

Nicola Sturgeon setting out new rules for pubs in Scotland (BBC News)

If anyone were in any doubt as to the sheer might of coronavirus they have only to reflect on the fact that, for the second time in six months, it has made it impossible to get a drink inside a pub in large parts of Scotland.  

The new near-lockdown restrictions announced by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, which vary in severity from place to place, are a measure of just how seriously the authorities in Scotland take the rapid escalation in infections and hospitalisations. That treatments and clinical protocols have improved to blunt the ultimate effects on the death rate is of some comfort, but a heavy second wave of Covid-19 could still place huge strains on the NHS and on the economy, and take many more loved ones before their time.  

The north of England and other parts of the country seem set to follow Glasgow and much of the central belt into more restrictions on indoor private socialising, whether at home or going out. From Bolton to Belfast and Llantrisant to Liverpool, the hospitality trade is going to be subject to another sharp squeeze – but so will friends and families who simply want to visit one another.