Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon warns Scots against travel to Blackpool

People from Scotland have been warned against travelling to Blackpool after it was linked to a "large and growing" number of Scottish coronavirus cases.

About 180 Scots have tested positive for the virus in the past month after travelling to the seaside town.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would write to the prime minister seeking urgent talks over UK-wide travel restrictions.

And she warned against travelling for non-essential reasons.

Blackpool Council said "stringent Covid secure measures" were in place, while local hoteliers said Ms Sturgeon singling out the town was "a real kick in the teeth".

Coronavirus cases have been surging in Scotland in recent weeks, with a further 1,429 positive tests being recorded on Wednesday.

A further 15 deaths of people who had tested positive have also been registered.

Ms Sturgeon said the country was at a "really critical moment", and said the government "will not shy away from doing what we think is necessary to keep the people of Scotland as safe as possible".

She said trips to Blackpool - and in particular coach parties - had been linked to "a large and growing number of cases" of the virus in Scotland, with a specific incident management team set up to deal with them.

Over the past month, around 180 people have told contact tracing teams that they had recently been in the Lancashire holiday resort, with 94 of them in the past week.

Ms Sturgeon said the town was being "mentioned in Test and Protect conversations far more than any other location outside of Scotland", with a particular concern about coach trips.

She said she knew many people would have trips planned for the half-term holidays in October, but said: "If you don't have to travel right now, do not travel."

Ms Sturgeon made an appeal to football fans in particular, saying supporters of Rangers and Celtic should not travel south to watch Saturday's derby match between the Glasgow rivals.

Police in England had already warned Old Firm fans about making a cross-border visit for the match while pubs and bars in Glasgow are closed.

The first minister said people should "watch the football at home", adding: "Do not travel to Blackpool this weekend to watch the Old Firm match in a pub. If you do that you will be putting yourselves and other people at risk please do not do that this weekend."

Blackpool attracts 18 million visitors each year, around a million of them said to be from Scotland.

A spokesperson for Blackpool Council said there had not been outbreaks in the local tourism industry, or in the rest of the UK which had been linked back to the town.

And Claire Smith of the StayBlackpool group of hoteliers said Scottish visitors were "absolutely critical to the town's success".

She said: "It's demoralising when so many people have worked so hard to make their product safe. It's a real kick in the teeth when a town is mentioned so specifically."

The director of public health at Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group said other parts of the north west of England have much higher rates of infection.

Dr Arif Rajpura told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime: "We are not necessarily a hotspot for Covid, as is being portrayed by the first minister."

He added that the seaside town has about 60 Covid marshalls active at weekends to make sure people are social distancing.

Dr Rajpura said: "We have a lot going on in terms of making our town Covid secure so, from that point of view, the experience is safe."

He also told the programme Blackpool has not had any "big hotel-based outbreaks" and household transmission is the main driver of infections in the area.

Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon said she was seeking "urgent talks" with Mr Johnson about UK-wide travel restrictions following calls from the Welsh government.

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has been leading calls for travel restrictions to be imposed on virus hotspots across the UK, to stop people from carrying the virus from higher prevalence areas into other parts of the country.

Mr Drakeford said he had written to Mr Johnson twice without any formal reply, and that he was "preparing new regulations to protect the health of people in Wales" that would come into force on Friday.

There was a political row over the summer when Ms Sturgeon refused to rule out the idea of requiring visitors from areas with outbreaks to quarantine - with Mr Johnson calling the idea "astonishing and shameful".

Ms Sturgeon tweeted in support of Mr Drakeford's move, stressing that "these are public health decisions and nothing to do with constitutional or political debates".

And she said at her daily coronavirus briefing that she had written to Mr Johnson seeking a "sensible agreement" between the four nations about new rules.

The first minister said she would not hesitate to put "formal travel restrictions in place if necessary", but said she hoped people would choose to "do the right thing".

She said: "It is people's good sense and good will and sense of solidarity with each other that should still guide us through this.

"I'm not expecting you to obey these rules just because I stand here and ask you to, I'm asking you to obey these rules because they are about keeping you and your loved ones safe and keeping the whole country safe."