#Coronavirus: Scotland to ban gatherings of more than 500 people

As Covid-19 continues to spread unabated, Scotland has announced a ban of any gathering of at least 500 people as from next week in order to fight the pandemic.

According to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it would be ‘inappropriate to continue as normal’ and announced the move will come into effect from Monday to ‘protect the resilience’ of front-line healthcare workers.

It comes as the UK government is set to trigger the ‘delay’ phase of its plan to fight the spread of the pandemic, which will introduce stricter measures.

Currently there are 36 confirmed cases and no deaths in Scotland, while there are 459 in the UK in total.

However, Ms Sturgeon said she expects a ‘sharp rise in cases’ which will be confirmed at 2pm during the daily announcement.

The Minister also said that a decision on whether to close schools has not yet been made but teachers across the UK say they have been told to start putting together home-learning packs in preparation for a potential month-long school lockdown.