Her denial comes after NHS sources said a “circuit breaker” stay at home order for the whole of the country of Scotland will be implemented from 6pm on Friday following a surge in coronavirus cases. But First Minister Ms Sturgeon said this was not part of the plans.
She told the Scottish people: “We are not proposing another lockdown at this stage, not even on a temporary basis.
“We are not going to ask you to stay inside your own homes in the way we did back in March. And while we have been asking people to think carefully about non-essential travel, particularly overseas… we are not about to impose travel restrictions on the whole of the country.
“We are not about to shut down the entire economy, we are not about to halt the remobilisation of the NHS.
“It is vital our National Health Service is there for non-Covid conditions as well as anything that we have to deal with in relation to Covid.
“And apart from the October holidays, which are already planned, we are not proposing to close schools either wholly or even partially.
“So I hope all of that gives people some reassurance.”
It comes after Scotland recorded two new coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours.
The deaths, of patients who first tested positive for the virus in the previous 28 days, take the total number of fatalities under this measure to 2,532.
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Another meeting is planned for early Wednesday morning, the First Minister said, before she makes a statement to Holyrood.
But give the “entirely understandable public anxiety about what the next few weeks might hold”, Ms Sturgeon said she wanted to give people some insight into the issues ministers are “grappling with” as they try to contain the virus.
Speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon told people: “After seven months of decisions that have been extremely difficult for me and the Government to take, and even more difficult for all of you to live with…, in many ways this is is probably the most difficult decision point we have faced so far.”
The figures show Scotland facing a “sharply rising rate of infection again”, she said.
And while she said rises were “particularly pronounced” in the central belt, in areas such as Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Lothian and now also Ayrshire and Arran and Forth Valley, Ms Sturgeon was clear: “Cases are rising everywhere across the country.
“Levels of infection now in most parts of Scotland are higher than we can be comfortable with.”
