Coronavirus: Sturgeon issues house parties warning

House parties are causing concern in the bid to contain the spread of coronavirus in Scotland, the First Minister confirmed.

Nicola Sturgeon pleaded with people to follow rules relating to indoor meetings, which say no more than eight people from a maximum of three households should gather inside.

She said house parties “present a considerable risk” in the fight to prevent the virus getting out of control.

Speaking at the daily briefing, she said: “I’ve spoken in recent days about the particular risks in pubs and restaurants and the need for hospitality generally to abide strictly by the rules and I want to reemphasise that today.

“But I also want today to express another concern and the basis for this concern is coming through our data now, just as concern about hospitality is, and that is a concern about house parties.

“I want to stress that these present a considerable risk so please stick to the rules about indoor household gatherings, no more than eight people from a max of three different households should be gathering outdoors.

“Apart from children under 12, people from different households must stay two metres apart from each other and you must wash hands and hard surfaces regularly.”

It comes as another 47 cases of coronavirus have been identified in Scotland in the last 24 hours.

Twenty-six of these new cases are in the Grampian health board area, ten are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and three in Orkney.

Sturgeon warned people the virus will spread if they do not continue to follow government guidelines.

She added: “I can’t make this point strongly enough. These rules should not be seen as optional, they are absolutely vital.

“The bottom line here is if these rules are not complied with strictly, this virus is going to spread and we have evidence of that already.”