Covid: Scottish stadiums could be full as early as August 10

Stadiums in Scotland could be full as early as August 10, the country’s national clinical director has suggested.

Professor Jason Leitch indicated that the planned end of social distancing rules will allow large-scale events like concerts, festivals and sporting fixtures to go ahead.

A crowd of 16,500 watched the British and Irish Lions at Murrayfield on Saturday, while Hampden has hosted crowds of up to 12,000 during Euro 2020.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon signalled "major remaining legal restrictions" could be lifted on August 9.
Jeff J Mitchell

Despite rising coronavirus case numbers and uncertainty over the impact of the Delta variant, restrictions in Scotland are set to ease to Level 0 on July 19, but at this stage there will still be a limit on the number of fans at venues.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has signalled all “major remaining legal restrictions” could then be lifted on August 9, two games into the new football season.

Prof Leitch told the BBC’s The Sunday Show: “On August 9 all physical distancing is removed and the limits on event sizes are removed.

“I would write that in your diary in pencil not Sharpie marker, for now.”

Asked if stadiums will be full again on this date, he said: “They can on August 10 but we have had to learn that new word, that ‘indicative’ word.

“We’re vaccinating 300,000 people every 10 days, that’s a lot of vaccine. This six weeks buys us quite a lot of vaccine time.”

The Scottish Premiership season is due to kick off on July 31, while the TRNSMT music festival in Glasgow Green has been moved to September 10-12.

Meanwhile, the latest coronavirus figures show Scotland recorded one death and 2,639 new cases in the past 24 hours.

Socially distanced fans during The Vodafone Lions 1888 Cup test match at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh.
Andrew Milligan

The data from the Scottish Government means the death toll under this daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 7,712.

A total of 31,695 tests reported results in the past 24 hours.

The daily test positivity rate was 8.9%, no change on the previous day.

The total number of people to have tested positive for the virus in Scotland is now 270,932.

There were 196 people in hospital on Saturday with recently confirmed Covid-19 – down one in 24 hours – and 17 in intensive care, also down one.

So far, 3,747,510 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 2,679,357 have had their second.