BBC News 15 June 2021
The easing of Covid-19 restrictions in Scotland is likely to be pushed back by three weeks, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The whole country had been due to move to the lowest level zero of its five-tier system from 28 June.
However Ms Sturgeon told MSPs that this was likely to be be delayed by three weeks so that more people can be vaccinated against the virus.
Ms Sturgeon said that "we need to buy sufficient time for vaccination to get ahead and stay ahead of the virus, and that is the reason for caution at this juncture".
She added: "Doing that will give us the best chance, later in July, of getting back on track and restoring the much greater normality that we all crave".
The revised date for moving to level zero would bring Scotland into line with England, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday that plans to lift restrictions would be pushed back by four weeks.
A formal decision will not be taken until next week, but Ms Sturgeon said it was "reasonable to indicate now that I think it unlikely that any part of the country will move down a level" as planned.
It means the country's mainland council areas will remain in either level one or level two, although many island communities including Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles are already in level zero.
Ms Sturgeon said the vaccination programme was weakening the link between the rising number of cases - largely driven by the so-called Delta variant that was first detected in India - and serious illness and deaths.
But she said there were still too many people who have not yet had both doses of the vaccine.
