Covid: Sturgeon to set out Scotland’s plans and UK finances improveon February 22, 2022 at 7:55 am

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday morning. We’ll have another update for you this evening.

Nicola Sturgeon is to set out the Scottish government’s plans for managing the Covid-19 pandemic in a “much less restrictive” way, saying she aims to maintain “vigilance” against future outbreaks en route to normality. But the Westminster government’s decision to scrap its UK-wide free mass testing system from 1 April raises questions, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson appearing to suggest Scotland would have to fund any continued free testing from existing budgets.

Mass vaccination centres will not be needed for the next roll-out of the Covid jab, according to the head of the vaccine programme in Northern Ireland. Patricia Donnelly says additional jabs can be facilitated by GPs, community pharmacies and health trusts, with the roll-out of the booster to about 155,000 eligible people expected to begin in April.

“Test, test, test – the World Health Organization famously recommended at the start of the pandemic,” says our health correspondent Nick Triggle. “And that is just what the UK did, quickly growing one of the biggest Covid testing infrastructures in the the world.” But what are the implications of ministers announcing mass testing in England will end by 1 April? Read his analysis.

Deaths in Scotland wholly linked to alcohol increased by 9% in 2020, as the pandemic took hold, when compared wtih the annual average for the previous three years, according to Public Health Scotland figures. It said the rise was driven particularly by men and those aged 45 to 64, which already had some of the highest alcohol-specific death rates before the pandemic. Scotland’s Public Health Minister Maree Todd says the government has “taken action to assist those who are drinking at harmful levels”.

There are more signs of the UK economy recovering from the shock of the pandemic. The public finances showed a surplus of £2.9bn last month, with tax revenues growing as the nation re-opened after lockdown, compared with a £2.5bn deficit in January 2021. However, the surplus was still £7bn smaller than in January 2020, before the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics.

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You can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.

Want to know more about England’s “living with Covid” plan – and the rules in the rest of the UK? Our explainer has details.

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