Hospital visits in Scotland to resume from July 13

Scottish hospitals will be able to accept visitors again from July 13.

Patients in non-coronavirus wards will be allowed to see one named visitor with strict social-distancing and hygiene measures in place.

Health secretary Jeane Freeman made the announcement at Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing.

It follows a similar relaxation on care home visits – to begin from July 3 – where residents will be permitted to receive garden visits from a single named person.

To limit the risks of transmitting Covid-19 in hospitals from July 13, visitors should not bring flowers, food packages or balloons into the hospital.

They must wear masks and must not attend if they have any symptoms of the virus – those being a fever, a cough or a loss of taste or smell.

Visitors can currently only go into hospitals to see someone at the end of their life, to accompany children or adults with mental health issues or to support women during childbirth.

Hospital areas treating Covid patients will continue to only allow essential visitors.

Speaking on Tuesday, the health secretary said: “I know how difficult it has been for people not being able to visit loved ones in hospital during the pandemic.

“It is one of the many sacrifices you have made and I want to thank you for that.

“Visiting has important benefits for patients health and wellbeing and I hope families across Scotland who have a loved one in hospital right now will welcome this announcement.”

Also speaking at the briefing, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said hospital admissions of coronavirus patients had fallen to an average of about four per day.

The country reported three deaths of people with the virus on Tuesday after a run of four straight days with zero deaths.

Reflecting on 100 days since lockdown began on March 23, the First Minister said: “Covid was starting to run out of control in Scotland.

“Because of that, two weeks after the start of lockdown in early April hospital admissions for the virus averaged over 200 every single day.

“Two weeks after that Covid deaths in Scotland, going by the wider National Records of Scotland data, were on average more than 90 every single day.

“To be in our current position with hospital admissions averaging just four a day, with consistently low numbers of new Covid cases, and with such a sharp reduction in death rates, all of that is massive and it is very welcome progress.”