From 6pm on 20 November, in 11 Scottish council areas will move to Level 4 for 3 weeks it has been announced.

Under the Level 4 restrictions:

• Hospitality businesses such as restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars will be closed.
• Takeaways can still operate as normal, provided food and drink is sold for consumption off premises. Face coverings and physical distancing rules must be followed.
• Hotels and other accommodation providers can still serve food to qualifying guests i.e. key or exempt workers, staying in their premises up to 22:00. Room service, including alcohol, is allowed as normal.

Other measures under Level 4 include:

• A ban on visiting other people's homes, but can still meet outdoors with up to six people from two households
• People should stay at or close to home as much as possible
• Those who can work from home should do so - although construction and manufacturing workplaces can remain open
• Only essential indoor retail premises will remain open
• Close contact services, such as hairdressers and beauty salons, visitor attractions, leisure and entertainment settings and indoor gyms will close
• But schools will remain open

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said continued and significant concern about levels of the virus in all of the council areas that would be moving to the highest tier of restrictions saying “The infection rate in all of these areas remains stubbornly and worryingly high.

"At these levels, we simply do not have the assurance we need that hospital and ICU services will be able to cope as we go deeper into winter."

The Scottish Hospitality Group, which represents some of the country's biggest pub and restaurant chains, said the fact that Covid cases in many Level Three areas had not fallen despite licensed premises largely being closed showed that household transmission was the biggest driver of the virus.

Glasgow Chamber of Commerce described the news as "devastating" and called for more emphasis on mass testing to avoid "a miserable cycle of lockdowns" through winter.