Scottish leader: Don’t book Easter holiday trips

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said Tuesday that Scots should avoid planning to travel over the Easter holiday and that it was unlikely that hotels or other residences for travelers would be open by then due to ongoing levels of COVID-19 in the country.

The BBC and The Scotsman reported that Sturgeon made public remarks Tuesday warning that travel could be restricted even into the summer.

“We are very likely to advise against booking Easter holidays either overseas or within Scotland as it is highly unlikely we will have been able to fully open hotels or self-catering accommodation by then. However, by the summer while is still highly unlikely overseas holidays will be possible or advisable, staycations might be – but this will depend on the data nearer the time,” Sturgeon said, according to the news services.

It remains “hard to overstate the necessity of being careful, cautious and gradual as we exit this lockdown,” Sturgeon added, according to the BBC.

Her remarks come as much of the country remains under stay-at-home orders, while a few municipalities are under slightly lower levels of restrictions. The country reported a 6 percent test positivity rate on Tuesday along with 773 new confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The U.K. as a whole has battled a more contagious form of COVID-19 for weeks after shutting down much of public life ahead of the Christmas holiday in December. The U.K.’s rate of new COVID-19 cases has dropped significantly since its peak in early January but still rests above levels seen throughout much of 2020.

British officials said on Friday that roughly 1 in 4 adults have received at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, totaling more than 15 million shots, including more than 1.1 million in Scotland.