Professor Jason Leitch has revealed his concerns over the potential for coronavirus to spread among shoppers in the run-up to Christmas.
Speaking on Scotland Tonight the National Clinical Director for Scotland said he was left “terrified” over scenes in London as crowds returned to the high-street.
He said: “When I saw the pictures of Regent Street last Saturday it terrified me, and if you look at London’s numbers today they are the highest in England and the highest they have been for weeks.
“I believe that the organisations and the institutions will try their best and do well and people need to take responsibility of their own as well, they need to follow the rules themselves.
“If Buchanan Street is busy then maybe you can wait, you could maybe wait a few hours or you could go back the next day.
“What we are slightly worried about is a rush particularly when we open retail and retail is the biggest change coming to those eleven council areas moving down to tier-3.”
Professor Leitch also confirmed that travel between different council areas will be allowed over the Christmas period as restrictions are lifted for five days.
However, he urged people to “think carefully” before doing so.
The restrictions being lifted means anyone traveling to or from an area in level-3 or level-4 over a five-day period won’t need a reasonable excuse.
And the Leitch also believes that most Scots could be vaccinated by the end of next summer, if the UK receives 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the first half of next year.
He said: “That will go a long way towards vaccinating the entire population of Scotland, but I just can’t tell you when that will be.
“We are hopeful that it will be this summer, but the summer is quite a long period.”
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