The confirmation came today following First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement on Saturday of drastic new Covid-19 restrictions.
Currently all of Argyll and Bute is in level two , but from Boxing Day the area will be subject to the most severe level four restrictions, with hospitality and non-essential retail outlets closing.
This is except for a handful of islands which will move to level three – Coll, Colonsay, Erraid, Gometra, Iona, Islay, Jura, Mull, Oronsay, Tiree and Ulva.
Schools will remain open as planned until tomorrow, December 23, but the holidays have been extended to January 11 rather than January 7 as planned.
A council spokesperson said: “Children will receive their learning online from January 11 until at least January 18, when they will begin to return to school, providing the Scottish Government are confident that the virus is under control.
“Children of key workers and vulnerable children can attend school for childcare from January 7, with learning beginning on Monday January 11.”
Parents and carers of children eligible for a free school meal will receive an automatic payment to their bank account which will cover the period until January 18.
This will include pupils in P1-P3 who are currently receiving payments through the holidays.
Parents who were identified as key worker previously in the year and had a space at a hub schools will receive a letter to confirm arrangements from January 7.
Parents of new pupils and anyone who has changed career and is now classed as a keyworker should apply for a place by emailing seemis@argyll-bute.gov.uk.
Latest figures from Public Health Scotland show there were 34 positive cases of Covid-19 in Argyll and Bute in the week ending December 19.
Of these, 11 were in the ‘Lomond Shore’ area.
I wonder if any of the 34 ‘positive cases’ had goat, papaya or a can of coke before their test? It seems these non-human samples sent to the WHO were also found to ‘test positive’ using the PCR. Not surprisingly a Portuguese Court recently ruled that the PCR tests are “unreliable and that it is unlawful to quarantine people based solely on a PCR test”….Yet we continue down the same road regardless??