First minister explains approach to travel restrictions in Covid-19 hotspots

Nicola Sturgeon has been explaining why formal travel restrictions are not being imposed on areas of Scotland with high numbers of coronavirus cases.

At the moment, the infection rate in areas like Aberdeenshire is around 15 times lower than areas of Lanarkshire and at least 10 times lower than Glasgow.

Back in August, people living in Aberdeen were told they should not travel further than five miles except for work or education, while an outbreak linked to pubs in the city was brought under control.

But despite hundreds of new cases being confirmed in parts of the central belt every day, compared to around 100 in the whole month leading up to Aberdeen's localised lockdown, people are simply being encouraged not to travel - rather than facing any formal sanctions.

Original 106 asked the first minister to explain her approach at her daily briefing today.

She told us that there are challenges around enforcing such rules - and claims the circumstances now are different to what they were two-and-a-half months ago.

You can see her response from 32:50 in the video above.

Meanwhile Nicola Sturgeon expects to provide an update on restrictions facing hospitality businesses tomorrow.

The current rules, banning the sale of alcohol indoors with a 6pm curfew, are due to end on Sunday night.

She also expects to be able to provide more details on the new tiered system of restrictions for Scotland before the end of this week - with it then being debated in parliament next week, and introduced on November 2.

That could see areas with higher infection rates facing tougher restrictions than those with low prevalence of Covid-19.