Once-a-day exercise lockdown rule to be relaxed from Monday
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THE once-a-day exercise rule will be relaxed in Scotland from Monday.
However, although people can now exercise more often, they are still being urged to do so close to home.
And First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said strict social distancing measures remain in place, with the relaxation of exercising not extending to picnics, sunbathing or barbecues.
In Scotland a total of 1857 people have now died from Covid-19.
And ahead of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's addess to the nation at 7pm on Sunday night, she revealed she has asked the UK Government not to advertise a new 'Stay Alert' message north of the border, insisting the message here remains 'Stay at Home'.
Ms Sturgeon said: "Clarity of message is paramount if we expect all of you to know what we are asking of you and as leaders we have a duty to deliver that clarity to those that we are accountable to, not to confuse it.
"To that end I have asked the UK government not to deploy their 'stay alert' advertising campaign in Scotland."
The First Minister said the R number - the rate of transmission of the virus - "may be higher" in Scotland, where the first positive case was confirmed on March 1, than other parts of the UK.
But she said "real progress" has been made in recent weeks and advised against easing restrictions too soon.
Ms Sturgeon added: "Let me be very blunt about the consequences if we were to do that. People will die unnecessarily and instead of being able to loosen restrictions, hopefully in the near future, we will be faced instead with having to tighten them.
"We must not take that risk."
Mr Johnson is set to unveil a road map towards exiting lockdown tonight, however, the Scottish Government has already extended its lockdown, with a further review likely in the next week.
In Grampian there have been 1050 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 92 people currently in hospital and 10 in intensive care.
