NICOLA Sturgeon has warned that people in Scotland are “likely to face” coronavirus restrictions for a further six months.
The First Minister told today's briefing on the pandemic that this did not mean that all the new nationwide curbs she will announce over the next 48 hours will be in place over the six-month timescale.
But she added that it was likely some restrictions would be in place during the course of that period.
The UK chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance and its chief medical advisor Professor Chris Whitty held a briefing in Downing Street this morning on the crisis amid growing cases of the virus.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon in urgent talks with Boris Johnson about coronavirus strategy
The experts suggested small quantities of a vaccine could be available by the end of this year with greater supplies being made available in the first half of next year.
Referring to the UK update on the vaccine, the First Minister said people will be living with Covid until such time as a vaccine takes away the need to life under certain restrictions.
"We heard Chris Whitty this morning talk about some volume of vaccine available later this year but, assuming everything goes as planned with the development of the vaccine, it will take some time for the manufacture in the volumes of that to allow population vaccination," she said.
"This is the kind of timescale that we all have to be prepared to be living in a way that is not entirely normal.
"Now what that doesn't mean is that any restrictions we bring in this week will be in place for a solid six month period. It may be that we have periods where we have to have greater restrictions then ease them a bit and have other restrictions later on.
"So the six month period is the length of time we are all likely to be living with some of the restrictions but it is not necessarily going to be the same restrictions with the same severity for the duration of that period."
READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland: New restrictions to come into force by Wednesday
Towards the end of his statement this morning Vallance said small quantities of a vaccine to prevent could be available later this year.
"I am pleased to say good progress is being made. Many vaccines now have shown they generate an immune response of a type that ought to be protective and several vaccines are in very late stages of clinical testing aiming to show they are both effective and safe," he said.
Vallance went on to say that the UK through the vaccines taskforce has accessed to a number of the vaccines.
He added: "We don't yet know whether they will work but there is increasing evidence that points in the right direction and it's possible that some vaccine could be available before the end of the year in small amounts for certain groups.
"Much more likely that we'll see things becoming available over the first half of next year…In the meantime we have got to get in control of this," he said.
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