SCHOOL closures and new travel restrictions are being considered under plans for a new tiered approach to local lockdowns, the First Minister has said.

Nicola Sturgeon said at the daily briefing on the pandemic that the Scottish Government will publish at the end of this week details on its new strategic framework.

A three-tier system of alerts was introduced in England last week, where people living in different parts of the country comply with different restrictions depending on the levels of infection and number of cases in their area.

But the First Minister has indicated she may want to go further in the Scottish system of curbs amid concerns Boris Johnson’s approach would not be sufficient to contain the virus.

In England, the highest alert level does not include school closures, though it does include guidance on travelling into and out of affected areas.

She told the briefing: “One of the things the framework will set out are the different tiers or levels of intervention and restrictions which may be applied in future – either locally or nationally across Scotland – depending on how the virus is spreading.

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“We will also indicate – based on the latest advice from the National Incident Management Team and our clinical advisers – what levels should apply to different parts of the country or potentially all of the country once the current temporary restrictions on hospitality come to an end on October 26.”

She added: “Publication of the framework is an important step, as we look ahead to the winter and prepare to manage the virus over, what may well be and I would expect to be, a very challenging period.

“We hope that the framework can command broad support both politically in parliament and across wider society.”

Responding to questions, the First Minister said she will “strive to keep schools open”.

But she added: “Within all the tiers we will continue to take judgements on whether that is possible or not.

“We’ve always said that we cannot rule out, in parts of Scotland or Scotland overall, at any stage, reverting to blended learning for a period but we want to avoid that if possible.”

She warned that if the numbers of cases continue to rise, measures around schools may have to be looked at. She said: “If we do see a continuing acceleration of the spread of the virus and if we have a tiered approach, the further up the tiered approach you go, then considerations about what that means for schools will be ongoing.

“Part of the reason for moving to a tiered approach is to give people greater certainty – if the virus is at this kind of level, here’s the restrictions.”

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She said when the Scottish Government publishes the framework it will set out “the basket of metrics” that will be used to assess what level of alert is applied.

She added: “The caveat I have to put on this is that will always involved a degree of judgement, and that degree of judgement will always apply to whether schools continue to open normally or whether there is a move to blended learning.”

She said discussions were ongoing with clinical advisers about what curbs will be in place from Monday.

Asked about travel restrictions, she said: “Travel restrictions will be part of our consideration over the course of the week whether as part of the package of the measures we need to have over the next period ... whether stricter travel restrictions are required to the ones we have at the moment and we will report on that later in the week.”