GLASGOW will be moved down to lockdown level two in four days' time.

Nicola Sturgeon announced the city can finally join lower restrictions after it was held back when the rest of Scotland saw rules eased.

The First Minister said different areas will be subject to different restrictions.

The First Minister said in areas where cases are higher or are rising a slowing down will help protect those areas.

Cases in Glasgow have stabilised and are starting to fall after they increased to levels that kept the city in a higher level than the rest of mainland Scotland.

Glasgow will now move to Level Two from midnight Friday into Saturday.

It means people will be able to meet in homes and travel again outside the city.

Sturgeon said: "These changes are significant."

She said cases numbers in the city have fallen from 146 per 100,000 to 129 per 100,000 in the last week.

A number of other areas will not move to level one and will stay in level two.

They include Edinburgh, Midlothian, Renfewshire, East Renfreshire, East Dunbartonshire,North and South Lanarkshire, and the three Ayrshire areas as well as Stirling and Clackmananshire.

Sturgeon said the decisions were "difficult and complex".

She said "we do believe vaccinations are opening a path to a less restrictive way" of dealing with covid.

She said the Indian variant was spreading faster and accounts for "well over half of new cases" in Scotland.

She said health officials were warning the UK "could be at the start of a third wave" of the virus.

Glasgow Times: Glasgow is to finally move down to Level Two restrictions Glasgow is to finally move down to Level Two restrictions

However, she said we have an "advantage" and said "we have evidence the link between caes and hospitalisations and deaths is weakening".

She said, however, full vaccination was needed to give stronger protection.

There were 478 new cases, which was 3.1% of all tests carried out.

There were 106 in hospital down two, and  ten patients in intensive care, two more than yesterday.