SCOTLAND will be placed in lockdown for January with a legal requirement to stay at home, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced at the Scottish Parliament.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson could announce an England-wide lockdown today. 

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs the decision had been taken after a meeting of the Scottish Cabinet on Monday morning, January 4.

She said she is more concerned about coronavirus now than she has been for the duration of the pandemic and announced a lockdown, which will be in effect in Scotland for the duration of January.

Updating MSPs in Holyrood, she said: “It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year.”

NHS capacity is already beginning to strain at some health boards, the First Minister said, with NHS Ayrshire and Arran currently at 96 per cent capacity, while Borders, Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Lanarkshire are above 60 per cent. 

Ms Sturgeon added: “I can confirm now, in summary, that we decided to introduce from tomorrow, for the duration of January, a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes. This is similar to the lockdown of March last year.”

Without intervention, Nicola Sturgeon has said, the NHS in Scotland may become overwhelmed in the coming weeks.

According to modelling by the Scottish Government, the First Minister told MSPs that taking no action could see Covid-19 capacity in hospitals overrun within “three or four weeks”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “We have an opportunity in Scotland to avert the situation here deteriorating to that extent.

“But we must act quickly.”

The First Minister said Scotland recorded 1,905 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, down from the 2,464 reported on Sunday.

The daily test positivity rate is 15 per cent, a marginal drop from 15.2 per cent on Sunday.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces mounting pressure to enforce an England-wide lockdown, with a former health secretary joining the growing list of those calling for national action.

Jeremy Hunt has called for an immediate new national lockdown while the vaccine is rolled out to the most vulnerable.

Some 44 million people in England are currently under Tier 4 restrictions, the most stringent of Covid measures, including in County Durham, Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Gateshead, Sunderland, Newcastle and Northumberland.

A full lockdown could see a return of tougher measures including shielding for vulnerable people, which is already the case in Tier 4 areas. 

Mr Hunt, who now chairs the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, said the NHS had never faced such a crisis as it is in currently.

He said: “All the evidence has been very clear that countries that act earlier and more decisively end up both saving more lives and protecting their economies,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.

“This is a new strain, it is incredibly dangerous but this time, in a way, action is easier because we have the vaccine.

“We know that we are talking about essentially a 12-week period by the end of which everyone who needs to will have been vaccinated. For the sake of that period it is just worth biting the bullet on this.”

Most pupils in Scotland will be learning from home for at least the rest of the month, Ms Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister said a period of home learning would drive down transmission rates. She also said the scientific community was not clear on the impact of the new variant of Covid-19 on young people.