First Minister says it's 'inevitable' Fife schools will close by end of week

The First Minister says it's 'inevitable' schools and nurseries across Fife and Scotland will shut by the end of this week.

Nicola Sturgeon gave her latest press conference on the coronavirus outbreak this lunchtime.

It happened shortly after Kirkcaldy High School asked parents and carers not to send S1 and S2 pupils into classes tomorrow and on Friday.

The decision was taken at the school, because of a 'very significant' shortage of staff.

Ms Sturgeon says the reality is that because families are following the advice to self-isolate, schools do not have enough staff to teach.

She said: "My view is that it is now inevitable that we will close schools and nurseries.

"My planning assumption now is that schools will close to pupils at the end of this week.

"I wanted today to give parents notice of that now.

"We have the reality on the ground, as people do the right thing and follow the advice to self-isolate or to isolate as a household, more and more schools are approaching a point where they have lost too many staff to continue as normal."

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