Sturgeon: Lifting lockdown measures would not save economy

Nicola Sturgeon has said lifting lockdown measures “prematurely” would not prevent Scotland from suffering further economic damage.

The Scottish First Minister was speaking on BBC Scotland’s The Nine when she reiterated her message that preventing the loss of life was the most important factor for these measures.

She told the programme on Thursday a “balance” had to be struck to prevent as many people as possible from dying of the virus and protecting the economy.

Ms Sturgeon said: “The longer we are having to deal with the virus in this way the greater the economic impact and nobody is blind or deaf to that.

“But flip it the other way and we come out these measures prematurely, in order to avoid further economic damage, and what happens is the virus spirals out of control again – that’s not helping the economy.

“Because we will have vast numbers of people off work, we will have huge numbers of people dying from this and the economic damage will not be escaped.

“It is a balance that has to be struck – and I say this really sincerely and straight – it has to be a balance that’s struck with the preservation of life very much at the top of the priority list.”