Scotland imposes lockdown 'similar to March last year' amid surge in coronavirus cases

Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Monday that the country will be in coronavirus lockdown for the rest of January due to surge in cases with restrictions coming into force from midnight tonight.

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Most schools in the country will remain shut till February 1, Sturgeon informed with home learning for most students.

"We have decided to introduce from midnight (0000 GMT Tuesday), for the duration of January, a legal requirement to stay at home, except for essential purposes. This is similar to the lockdown of March last year," Sturgeon said.

Under the stringent lockdown restrictions, only two people from two households will be allowed to meet outdoors and places of worship will be closed. Sturgeon asserted that people will only be allowed to leave their houses for essential reasons.

"In one lane we have vaccines, our job is to make sure they can run as fast as possible and that's why the government will be doing everything we can to vaccinate people as quickly as possible," Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament

"But in the other lane we have the virus which as a result of this new variant has just learned to run much faster," Sturgeon told lawmakers.

Sturgeon warned the surging cases could lead to breach inpatient COVID-19 capacity within "three or four weeks" in the country's hospital.

According to the government, 1,905 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Scotland in the last 24 hours with the total number of cases rising to 136,498.

There were 13,810 new coronavirus tests conducted nationwide with 15 per cent testing positive for the virus. The death toll due to the virus in the country has reached 4,578.