Nicola Sturgeon 'far from convinced' UK ready to start lifting lockdown measures
Nicola Sturgeon has said she is "far from convinced" the UK is in a position to start lifting lockdown measures from the end of next week.
Speaking to ITV's Peston about the fifth test for removing lockdown measures, which means being confident that any changes to lockdown measures will not cause a second wave of the virus; Scotland's first minister said the removal of measures will not be a "flick switch moment", adding officials will have to be "very careful, very slow, very gradual" with decisions on the UK-wide shutdown.
She told ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston: "People talk about lifting the lockdown, that is not going to be a flick of the switch moment - we're going to have to be very careful, very slow, very gradual.
"I'm far from convinced at this stage that when we get to the next review point on May 7, we'll be in a position to lift any of these measures right now, because the margins of manoeuvre that we're operating in right now are very, very, very tight and narrow."
Asked if she believed the government had changed the language of the fifth test in order to prioritise protecting the NHS, she said: "It is necessary to have as an objective not overwhelming the NHS, but not sufficient to have that as your only objective.
"Because if you take the situation in Scotland right now, and this will be similar across the UK, we have the numbers of people in intensive care around just over 100, but we've got a capacity in intensive care of nearly 600.
"So if your only objective was not overwhelming the NHS I could say to you, well we could afford to have the numbers of people in intensive care quadrupling, and we still wouldn't overwhelming the NHS."
Whilst health issues are devolved in Scotland, in the past, on school closures and keeping the lockdown in place, the rest of the UK has followed the lead set by Edinburgh.
It follows comments from Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Witty, about the "R" value in the UK, which is the reproductive value of coronavirus.
An "R" value of one would mean each person will infect one other person, a value of three would mean three people would be infected by each infected person.
Officials are keen to get the "R" value as low as possible before easing measures.
Prof Whitty said earlier this week that the "R" value in the UK is between 0.5 to one, and perhaps around 0.75.
He said: "Obviously if it was lower, it would give us more room for manoeuvre, but it gives some room for manoeuvre, but it doesn't give a huge amount of room for manoeuvre.
"That's one of the thing ministers are going to have to consider - how to actually make sure we keep the "R" below one, given where we are at the moment thanks to what everybody is doing.
"But there isn't a magic number here.
"Lower is better but it's not that there is a specific number that has to be the right number."
'Any benefit' from mask-wearing is worth having, first minister says
Following a Holyrood announcement earlier this week that people in Scotland should wear face masks, the first minister was asked why her advice different from that offered by Westminster.
She responded: "I think it's right for Scotland and many of these responsibilities are within devolved responsibility here so I am accountable to the people of Scotland for these decisions.
"Now the UK government is taking a different decision as far as England is concerned, at the moment I don't know, they may change that in future, and I'm not criticising them for that, we're all looking at the same advice on face masks, face coverings, just to be precise about this.
"The science is not overwhelming but the evidence and the scientific advice that we've seen says that there is some benefit from people, if they are having to be in enclosed spaces with other people, and it's not easy to socially distance, there is some benefit from wearing a cloth face covering.
"And to be clear what that benefit is, it's if you have the virus but you might not know it because you don't have symptoms, so you're not isolating as you should be if you have symptoms, then wearing that mask doesn't give you protection but it might reduce the chance of you passing on the virus to somebody else.
"Now my view is that if there is any benefit to be had from that, we should do it, which is why I made that recommendation."