Scotland announced Thursday that it will close nightclubs from next week to fight the spread of Covid-19 as Britain sees record case numbers fu-elled by the new Omicron variant.
The Scottish government, which makes deci-sions on virus curbs independently of the central government in London, said nightclubs would have to close from 5 am on Monday “to tackle the trans-mission of Omicron, which continues to spread rapidly”.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the closure of nightclubs would come along with finan-cial support to help them “weather what we hope will be a short period until they are able to operate normally again”.
He added that nightclubs could remain open if they only provided table service and had social dis-tancing measures.
The UK on Wednesday reported a record 106,122 new infections in the last 24 hours.
The country is one of Europe’s most affected by the virus with a death toll of 147,573.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned Scot-land could face a “tsunami of infections” and an-nounced measures including a limit of 500 people at outdoor events from December 26, hitting sports fixtures.
Other UK nations Wales and Northern Ireland have also tightened virus curbs, while Prime Minis-ter Boris Johnson has opted not to introduce tougher restrictions in England ahead of Christmas.
But two studies from Britain show Covid infec-tions with Omicron are less likely to result in hospi-tal admission compared with the Delta variant. More than 30 million people in the UK have re-ceived booster jabs as Johnson has set the ambitious goal of offering one to everyone over 18 by the end of the year.—AP
