Clubbers in Scotland have returned to dancefloors for the first time in more than a year as the country’s coronavirus restrictions eased at midnight.
Revellers vowed to be ‘out every night’ after the country moved beyond Level 0, the lowest level of a five-tier system of restrictions.
In Glasgow, dancers were out in force at the Boteco Do Brasil club. Martin Stewart, 24, was among the crowd and said he was glad to be back.
‘It’s been a long wait – I’ll be out till closing,’ he said.
At the nearby Polo Lounge, revellers chanted as the clock struck midnight before they flooded the dancefloor after a year of lockdowns.
Luke Dunsmuir, 19, from Strathbungo, said he was eager to get back. He said with clubs closed he had missed meeting different people.
He said he wasn’t worried about Covid-19 as he was double-vaccinated.
‘The only worry was older people, that was the only worry for me, but the younger generation the percentage of them getting Covid is so low,’ he said.
He said his next few weeks would be ‘busy busy’, adding: ‘Out every night, just you wait, you’ll be seeing my face everywhere.’
The lifting of the majority of lockdown rules overnight in Scotland means that the legal requirement for physical distancing and gatherings have been removed.
Some measures, such as the requirement to wear face coverings indoors in public places and on public transport, will stay in place.
But since the announcement last week, the Scottish Government changed its position on requiring masks in nightclubs and people will also now be allowed to drink while standing up in pubs.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs last week that the country could move beyond Level 0 due to the ‘steady decline in cases’ and ‘the success of vaccination’.
Under the new rules, double-vaccinated adults and all children will be able to avoid self-isolation if they are a close contact of someone with coronavirus so long as they are symptomless and provide a negative PCR test.
Pupils and teachers will have to continue wearing masks indoors for up to six weeks after schools return, the Government has said.
But whole classes in schools will no longer have to stay at home if an infection is discovered, although children and adults who are higher-risk close contacts will be told to isolate.
Outdoors events of more than 5,000 people and indoor events of more than 2,000 will have to apply for permission from local authorities and the Government to go ahead.
When announcing the lifting of further restrictions, Sturgeon hailed Monday as ‘perhaps the most significant date so far’ in the pandemic.
The number of new coronavirus infections reached a peak of 4,234 on July 1 but the average number of daily cases during August is 1,172, according to Scottish Government statistics.
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