Scottish first minister calls for Scottish sites to shut to āsave livesā
Nicola Sturgeon has called for construction sites in Scotland to close ahead of the prime ministerās daily press conference, warning: āthis is about saving lives.ā
The Scottish first minister (pictured), who has been attending the governmentās emergency Cobra meetings, said that workers continuing as normal pose a serious risk of spreading coronavirus.
Speaking at a press conference she said: āIt has been clear to me that there are still too many people across our country who are being expected to, or expecting to, go to work as normal and this presents a serious and unnecessary risk of spreading the virusā.
She added: āThis morning I was specifically asked on radio about building sites and hair salons and my advice would be to close.
āIf our National Health Service becomes overwhelmed people will die needlessly. This is about saving lives.ā
She also said that she was āvery hopefulā that the UK government would soon introduce further measures to help freelance, self-employed and contract workers.
>> The curious case of building sites staying open while coronavirus sends country into lockdown
The first ministerās comments came as Northern Irelandās health minister warned that ādraconianā measures to restrict movement in Northern Ireland could be seen within days.
Speaking at the Northern Irish power sharing assembly at Stormont, Robin Swann said: āThis isnāt something we can wait weeks on, this isnāt something that we will wait many days on. These draconian measures will save lives.ā
Meanwhile Boris Johnson is reported to be facing a āfull scale mutinyā amongst his senior cabinet ministers and advisors if he does not bring in stricter social distancing controls in the coming days.
However Arcadis head of strategy Simon Rawlinson told ŠŌ°ÉµēĢØ the issue of closing the UKās construction sites is a āvery difficult and nuanced question to answerā.
āI think that in some instances itās possible to continue working with elements of self segregation.ā
But he added that considering the speed of developments over the past week and the pressure now building on the government to āact ahead of the curve,ā he could see the prime minister ātaking quite significant measures across the economy.ā
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