Scotland will enter a monthlong lockdown beginning at midnight to mitigate the new coronavirus variant spreading across the United Kingdom.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the news on Monday, saying she was “more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year,” according to the BBC.
The new laws will require people to stay at home and work from home when possible, restrict outdoor gatherings, allow people to meet only one person from another household, close houses of worship and group exercise, and schools will operate remotely.
The rules will apply to the Scottish mainland until at least the end of the month, and they will be monitored throughout their implementation.
On Monday, 1,905 new cases were reported and 15% of tests came back positive.
More than 50,000 people in Scotland have been vaccinated with a therapeutic shot manufactured by Pfizer. This week, the U.K. rolled out 530,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Scotland is expected to get an 8.2% share of those vaccines, based on its population size.
Scotland has had over 135,000 reported cases of COVID-19 and over 4,000 deaths attributed to the virus. The U.K. has had over 2.5 million cases and more than 75,000 deaths attributed to the virus.
