There is potential for more restrictions in Scotland before Christmas according to John Swinney, in order to try and curb a surge in Omicron cases. 

New measures to deal with Covid were introduced on Tuesday, including advice to limit household mixing and new legal measures for businesses. 

However, this might not be the last of the pre-Christmas measures, with the UK treasury announcing more funding for the devolved nations during Nicola Sturgeon's speech yesterday. 

Asked on BBC Good Morning Scotland if more restictions were on the cards, the deputy first minister said: "Potentially that would be the case but we obviously want to avoid that.

"We hope that we have done enough in the announcements that were made yesterday and we hope that members of the public and businesses will work with us in a cooperative spirit to make sure that we can take these provision forward."

What restrictions did Nicola Sturgeon announce yesterday? 

On Tuesday, Nicola Sturgeon announced some new restrictions to help limit the spread of Covid. 

  • Three households socialising: The first minister urged people to limit socialising to three households, however this is not a legal requirement
  • Legal measures for businesses: New legal guidance for retail and hospitality will be introduced in the coming week, including rules on social distancing 
  • Employers must enable work from home by law: Employers must now allow people to work from home where possible by law

What is the Christmas guidance? 

The Scottish government has said that it won't currently be introducing any guidance on Christmas. 

Speaking on Tuesday, the first minister said: "I'm not asking anyone to ‘cancel’ Christmas, but in the run up to and in the aftermath of Christmas, I'm asking everyone to reduce, as far as possible and to a minimum, the contacts we have with people in other households."

She added that the government was not issuing guidance on the size of gatherings on Christmas eve, Christmas day or Boxing Day, but advised that keeping gatherings as small as reasonable was sensible.