NICOLA Sturgeon has announced additional settings where face coverings are mandatory in Scotland.

The First Minister made the comments when outlining new rules around the hospitality sector in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The new restrictions on coverings came into force yesterday and applies to everyone in Scotland, with exemptions.

What are the new settings?

Masks should now be worn in more public communal settings, like corridors, work canteens and break rooms.

Speaking on Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon said: "Firstly, we will introduce regulations to extend the mandatory use of face coverings in indoor communal settings.

"This will include, for example, staff canteens and corridors in workplaces.

"We will take action to strengthen compliance with the different strands of the FACTS advice - focusing on areas where we know from research that compliance is not yet high enough, for example, the need to self-isolate.”

 

Where else are face coverings mandatory?

A face covering is mandatory in a number of indoor settings, as well as on public transport. 

These include:

  • Shops, takeaway restaurants, pharmacies, estate agents, beauty parlours. 
  • Bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants except when an exemption applies.
  • Aquariums, indoor zoos or visitor farms, and any other indoor tourist, heritage or cultural site.
  • Banks, building societies and credit unions.
  • Cinemas.
  • Community centres.
  • Crematoriums and funeral directors' premises.
  • Libraries, public reading rooms, museums and galleries.
  • Places of worship.
  • Post offices.
  • Storage and distribution facilities, including collection and drop off points.
  • Bingo halls.
  • Casinos.
  • Bowling alleys.
  • Amusement arcades and other leisure facilities (such as snooker and pool halls).
  • Indoor funfairs.
  • Indoor fitness studios, gyms, swimming pools or other indoor leisure centres.
  • Train services including the Glasgow subway and Edinburgh Tram
  • Bus services.
  • Taxi and private hire vehicles.
  • Bus stations, railway stations (including open air stations) and airports.
  • Ferry services (unless the ferry is open to the elements and physical distancing can be achieved, or the vessel is large enough that physical distancing can be achieved).
  • Airline services.

Who is exempt from wearing a face covering?

According to the Scottish Government website, there are a number of reasons to be exempt from wearing a face covering.

These include:

  • Babies, toddlers and children under 5 years of age.
  • People who have a health condition or who are disabled, including hidden disabilities, for example, autism, dementia or a learning disability, or are providing care for someone with a health condition or disability, and a face covering would be inappropriate because it would cause difficulty, pain or severe distress or anxiety to the wearer or the person in the care of the wearer. This includes children with breathing difficulties and disabled children who would struggle to wear a face covering.
  • You cannot apply a covering and wear it in the proper manner safely and consistently
  • Anyone who needs to take medication and cannot do so whilst wearing a face covering.
  • A person who is communicating with someone else who relies on lip reading and facial expressions to communicate. Such people should remove the face covering only temporarily whilst communicating and replace it immediately afterwards.
  • Anyone who is seeking medical assistance, or acting to avoid injury, illness or harm, and where wearing a face covering would make this more difficult. This also applies if someone needs emergency assistance and they don’t have a face covering with them or there is not time to put one on.
  • A person who is providing care or assistance to a vulnerable person and where wearing a face covering would make this more difficult. This also applies if someone needs emergency assistance and they don’t have a face covering with them or there is not time to put one on.