media briefing – Page 2 – The NEN

First Minister: ‘COVID is spreading again’

Appeal to younger people: please think about your loved ones

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House, yesterday (Tuesday 8th September):

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us again today. As usual I will take us through the daily COVID statistics starting with today’s positive cases.

I can report that an additional 176 cases were confirmed yesterday. That represents 2.3% of people newly tested yesterday and takes the total number of cases now to 21,719.

As usual the full health board breakdown will be published on the website later on, but I can give you the provisional information I have which is that 91 cases are in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 32 in Lanarkshire, 16 in Lothian and 8 in Ayrshire and Arran.

The remaining 29 cases are spread across the other seven mainland health boards.

And it is worth me stressing today that we have positive cases reported today in every mainland health board area.

I can also confirm that 267 patients are currently in hospital with COVID, that is 11 more than yesterday and six people are in intensive care, which is one more than yesterday.

I am also very sad to report that in the past 24 hours, three deaths have been registered of patients who first tested positive over the previous 28 days. The total number of deaths, under this measurement, is now 2,499.

Today is the first occasion on which three deaths have been reported in our daily figures since 30 June.

This reminds us of the impact that the virus has had, and continues to have. But most of all of course, that figure speaks of three individual tragedies.

I want to send my condolences to those who are grieving as a result of the deaths reported today, and to everyone who has lost a loved one during this pandemic.

My remarks today are going to focus very much on the announcement that the Scottish Government made last night about the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area and then say something about the more general situation.

The Scottish Government’s Resilience Committee met late yesterday afternoon to discuss the restrictions which were put in place a week ago today in Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.

We considered a report from the Incident Management Team, and consulted the representatives of the local authorities affected.

Having assessed the latest information about new cases, and assessed advice from our senior clinical advisors, the Scottish Government decided yesterday that existing restrictions must remain in place for these three local authority areas.

We also concluded – on the evidence presented – that the restrictions should also be extended to cover two other local authority areas in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board region and those two additional council areas where Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire, both of these areas recorded a high number of new cases in the past week.

So that means that for anyone who lives in these five local authority areas, just as a reminder that is Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow City, East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire, that the following restrictions will apply for at least the next week.

Can I just recap, I think I may at one point have mixed up East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire, the restrictions were in place last week for West Dunbartonshire and they are now in addition in place for East Dunbartonshire. So, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Glasgow City, just in case I didn’t mention all of these areas correctly. So let me recap what the restrictions that are in place in these areas are.

First, if you live in these council areas, you should not host people from other households in your own home, and you should not visit someone else’s home – no matter where it is.

And to use my own example, I live in Glasgow City, I should not have people in my home and nor should I visit my parents who live in Ayrshire even though Ayrshire is not one of the affected council areas.

Secondly, if anyone in a household is identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID – then we are advising everyone in that household should self-isolate for 14 days.

That is different to the normal rules – where only the person who is a contact has to isolate – but our advice is that this extension is essential at this stage to help us break the chains of transmission.

And finally, visiting in care homes across Greater Glasgow and Clyde is restricted to outdoor visits only unfortunately, except for essential visits. Hospital visiting is for essential purposes only.

More details – including information about exceptions to the rules on household meetings, for carers and extended households – are available on the Scottish Government website.

I know that these rules are really unwelcome. As I already said, I live in Glasgow, and know how frustrating they are and I, just like all of you watching, do not want them to be in place for any longer than is necessary.

But overall I believe that they represent a proportionate – and hopefully effective – but also absolutely necessary response to a worrying increase in COVID across these areas.

The restrictions will be reviewed again next week. They will stay in place for as long as they are needed – but not for any longer than that.

Yesterday’s meeting also discussed the situation in other parts of Scotland – such as Inverclyde, and North and South Lanarkshire. At the moment, the number of new cases in these areas does not warrant additional restrictions – however this will be kept under close review.

We also discussed the hospitality sector.

The evidence we have at this stage suggests that house gatherings – which by their nature are hard to regulate for things like physical distancing – have made the biggest contribution to the spread of COVID across Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

They are also a setting in which older and more vulnerable people are often most at risk of infection because older and more vulnerable people are perhaps more likely to socialise at home rather than visit pubs and restaurants.

As a result, our restrictions focus on meetings in people’s houses. However some transmission we know is taking place in pubs and restaurants, and so we will also keep that under close review.

We will discuss with the five local authorities concerned, what further steps we can take to ensure that pubs, bars and restaurants are operating in line with all the necessary rules.

In doing that, we will learn lessons from the work that environmental health officers did in Aberdeen before pubs and bars there were able to re-open.

One point I would stress here, though, is that there has always been – and there remains – a responsibility for customers.

The rules on indoor meetings still apply in pubs.

So when you go out there should be now more than eight people from a maximum of three households in a group in a pub or restaurant; and different households should physically distance.

If you arrive in a bar which is a bit too crowded, and where physical distancing is difficult, then my strong advice would be not to stay there. Try to find a venue that is less busy.

And when you do go out, it is far better to stay in one pub than to visit several.

If you spend time in three or four different bars, you are significantly increasing the number of people who could transmit COVID to you.

And if you have COVID, but don’t yet have symptoms, you are significantly increasing the number of people you could infect.

In addition, if you think about how Test and Protect system works, one person visiting several pubs in a night or a week, creates a far bigger challenge to them than someone who just stays in one venue.

So please, try to ensure that you stay in the same place if at all possible. It makes a difference to your safety and also to the safety of those around you.

This is an area which is hard to regulate, and we do not want if we can avoid it, have to create rules or laws.

But there is, very clearly, a responsibility for individuals here.

The hospitality sector has reopened, and we want people to support the sector and of course to be able to safely enjoy themselves.

But we are still living in a global pandemic and that pandemic is now accelerating again across the country and of course and it is still accelerating across the world. So you should not be socialising in the same way as you were last year or the earlier part of this year before the pandemic struck

I also want to take the opportunity to remind you again that the international situation remains very volatile too – we see the number of cases raising in many countries across Europe and further afield so my advice is that you should still be cautious at this time about non-essential foreign travel.

The final point I want to make is that the situation I have outlined today is a sharp reminder for all of us– not just people in Greater Glasgow and Clyde but for all of us – that COVID unfortunately is spreading again.

That was always likely to happen when we substantially lifted lockdown.

That means we have to think carefully about whether it is safe or possible to open up further at this stage.

It is only fair that I signal now that – while final decisions have not been taken – when we do our latest three weekly review on Thursday, we may well not be able to go ahead with any further easing of restrictions at this time.

Obviously we want to do everything possible to avoid the situation where more restrictions that have been lifted have to be re-imposed.

And the key to avoiding that rests with all of us. The decisions we all make as individuals, still affect the safety and well-being of our communities.

So please do everything you can to avoid creating a bridge for the virus to cross over from one person to another or one household to another, if you do that there is less chance of you getting the virus and less chance of you transmitting the virus and less chance of course of you being contacted by Test and Protect and asked to self-isolate as a contact of someone who has tested positive

And before I finish briefly let me again, like I did yesterday, take head on an argument that we hear more frequently just now – and that argument is that because the virus is, at the moment, infecting more young people than old people, and because we are not yet seeing a sharp rise in serious illness or deaths, then we don’t need to worry about this.

That is, in my view, potentially a really dangerous delusion.

Firstly, the risk of a young person getting seriously ill or dying is thankfully lower – but it is not zero. And I would ask people of all ages to remember that.

Second, we are seeing warning signs here already. I have reported three deaths today – that’s the first time I’ve had to do that in more than two months, so we should listen to the warning signals that already here.

And thirdly, we don’t live in entirely generationally segregated ways. If transmission becomes established in the younger population, it will eventually reach the older, more vulnerable population.

So to younger people, please think about your loved ones as well as yourselves, which I know everybody does.

And to older people, be even more vigilant about hygiene and distancing if you are spending time with young relatives who may have been in pubs or restaurants.

And to all of us, let’s treat the current situation with the seriousness it most certainly merits.

Abide by the rules and remember that the simplest way in which all of us can deny the virus the opportunity to spread, is by following the FACTS advice.

These are the five golden rules that all of us must follow to protect ourselves, our families, our communities, protect the NHS and ultimately let’s not lose sight of this, save lives. So let me just end with a reminder of these five rules.

• Face coverings should be worn in enclosed spaces
• Avoid crowded places, whether they are indoor or outdoor.
• Clean your hands and clean hard as well.
• keep to Two metre distancing where ever you can. I know that that can be difficult, but it remains a really vital protection against this virus spreading.
• and remember to Self-isolate, and book a test, if you have symptoms of COVID.

It’s not easy for any of us to do all of this, but doing all of this helps us individually to contribute to a situation where collectively we have the best chance of keeping this virus under control, so my thanks to all of you for joining us again today.

Social gatherings above six banned in England from 14 September

Social gatherings of more than six people will be illegal in England from Monday following a steep rise in coronavirus cases.

A law change will ban larger groups meeting anywhere socially indoors or outdoors, but it will not apply to schools, workplaces or Covid-secure weddings, funerals and organised team sports.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will confirm details of the new restrictions later today.

First Minister: Virus spead is down to our own decisions

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House yesterday (Friday 14 August):

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us again today, let me firstly give the usual update on the Covid-19 statistics. I can confirm that an additional 65 positive cases were confirmed yesterday.

That represents 1.6% of people newly tested yesterday, and takes the total number of cases now to 19,238.

The full health board breakdown will be available later as usual, but I’ll give the provisional information and that is 28 of the 65 new cases are in the Grampian health board area.

Nine are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and 12 in Lanarkshire – which between them may reflect a cluster in north-east Glasgow. And there are two cases reported in today’s figure for Orkney.

A total of 253 patients are in hospital with confirmed Covid, which is five fewer than yesterday.

Three people are in intensive care which is the same as yesterday.

I’m also very pleased to say that yet again in the past 24 hours, we have had no deaths registered of patients who had tested positive for Covid so the number of deaths under that measurement remains 2,491.

Obviously that overall figure is a reminder of the impact of the virus and again I want to send my thoughts and condolences to those who have lost a loved one.

And as always, to say a very big and heartfelt thank you to everybody in whatever capacity they are working to get country through this difficult period.

I am joined by the Justice Secretary, who will talk in a moment about some arrangements for high court trials, and also cover today’s announcements in relation to quarantine requirements for people returning from holiday from countries such as France, Malta and the Netherlands. And then Jason Leitch will say a word or two before we take questions.

There are a couple of issues I want to say a bit more about today before any of that. Firstly, I’ll provide some further detail about the ongoing outbreak in Aberdeen.

I mentioned a moment ago that 28 of the 65 new cases reported today are in Grampian. I can say that on the latest figures we have available, since the 26^th of July, there have been a total of 328 cases identified in Grampian.

And as of now, we believe that 198 of these are associated with the cluster linked to Aberdeen pubs, and 1032 contacts have now been identified from these 198 cases. Contact tracing continues for what remains a very large and a very complex outbreak, and I am grateful once again to our health team and our test and protect teams.

I think it is clear from the numbers I have just given, that we will continue to see new cases and new contacts identified in Aberdeen in the coming days. But we are hopeful that this is an outbreak that will be brought firmly under control.

We are also continuing to monitor developments in relation to smaller clusters that I spoke about yesterday and I’ve referred to already today, firstly on Orkney, and secondly in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde are around north-east Glasgow, which will have potentially an impact on the Lanarkshire figures as well.

The other item I wanted to update on today relates to the new rules and guidance which are coming into force today for the hospitality sector. We know that pubs and restaurants are higher risk locations for transmission of COVID and we are seeing that reflected in our data right now

When the hospitality sector reopened, the Scottish Government published guidance on issues like physical distancing, hygiene, and the collection of customer details.

Many businesses, I believe the majority of businesses, have complied well with those measures, and I am grateful to all of them.

But I also know there are premises where that has not been the case.

We’ve had a particular concern over venues where crowding has become an issue – due to poor compliance with physical distancing, or premises exceeding their safe capacity.

We want to do everything possible to ensure that our hospitality sector, now that is has reopened, can remain open safely.

But it is absolutely essential that we guard against future outbreaks. The volume of cases that we are still dealing with in Aberdeen – many of which seem to have been the result of transmission in pubs – shows the importance of that.

So for that reason, two important new measures are coming into force today. Firstly, it is now mandatory for hospitality businesses, including cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars to collect customer and visitor contact details.

That requirement already exists in guidance – and I know many businesses are already doing this. But it is now the law. It is an essential step to ensure that our Test and Protect system can function as effectively as possible.

So from now on, all hospitality businesses must collect contact details for all visitors to their premises. That includes obviously customers and staff but also people such as cleaners and delivery drivers. And let me make this point clear as well, particularly to members of the public, if customers refuse to provide these details, they should not be served in the place that they are trying to be served in.

The second measure, is that we have today issued new statutory guidance relating to hospitality.

By making the guidance statutory – so that premises must take account of it – we are aiming to ensure greater compliance with the guidelines.

The guidance makes clear, for example, that there should be no indoor queuing in these premises. And if there has to be queuing outside of the premises which we are asking premises to avoid, but if it is necessary for safety reasons, people queueing must be physically distanced.

The guidance also states that people should not be standing together in a bar or restaurant. People should be seated only, with table service to them.

Physical distancing must be possible. Customers must be at least, in a hospitality premise, one metre apart – unless they are part of the same household group.

Businesses must therefore review their layouts to ensure that one metre distancing – at least – is possible. They should clearly signpost the requirement for distancing. And they must not admit more people than can safely gather in their premises abiding by the physical distancing rules.

And they are reminded – as customers are – of the current law on indoor and outdoor gatherings. Friends should not be meeting indoors in groups of more than eight people and those eight people should be from no more than three different households. If larger gatherings seem to be forming in a pub or a restaurant, then that should be challenged by those employed running the business.

We also recommend that face coverings should be used for front of house staff rather than face visors because there is now some evidence that they are more effective.

And finally, there should be no background music – or volume from a television because we don’t want people having to shout to be heard or lean in to each other because we know that increases the risks of transmission.

Now let me say on that point, I know, absolutely all of us know, that atmosphere in pubs and restaurants is important, so we are willing to work with the sector to see if it might be possible to agree a more nuanced position based on an acceptable decibel level, but as you will gather just from what I have said there that will not be simple and it will take time.

So, in the meantime the rule is there should be no background music in pubs and restaurants.

I want to stress that most of these changes will not represent new burdens on businesses. They should already be doing most or all of these things. But the changes should now ensure that all businesses are doing everything possible to make their premises safe.

Ultimately, this is in everybody’s interest.

Self-evidently, it’s in the public interest to reduce the risk of the virus being transmitted in pubs and restaurants – and to ensure that where there are outbreaks Test and Protect can contact everybody it needs to contact.

And it is also in the interests of the hospitality trade. The rules and guidance that take effect today are vital in ensuring that the sector can stay open safely now and into the winter period.

Alongside the guidance for hospitality businesses, we are publishing guidance for customers.

This will appear on the Scottish Government’s website, and if you are planning to go to a pub or restaurant I would ask you to take the time to read it, because the responsibility for ensuring that these rules operate effectively does not just belong to government, or indeed to businesses. It lies with all of us.

In particular, I want to remind everyone that the rules on indoor and outdoor gatherings apply, not just in your own homes although they are very important in your own homes or gardens, but they also apply in bars and restaurants.

No more than three households, with a maximum of eight people, should be meeting together indoors, whether that is a house, pub, restaurant or cafe. Outdoors, the maximum group size is 15 people, from no more than five households.

And within any group, people from different households must physically distance.

I know that sticking to that can be difficult. But it is really crucial.

Keeping our distance from other households, is an essential part of minimising the risk of transmission.

And finally, we are asking customers to minimise the number of premises you visit in any one day.

The more settings you go to, the more likely you might be to get Covid, and the more likely you might be to spread it. Visiting lots of pubs in a single day or evening massively increases as well the workload potentially of Test and Protect.

So please think about that. It makes a really big difference if you stay in one pub, or whether you go to several.

And more generally, if you are going out a lot at the moment, and this is a really difficult thing to ask people to do, but I am going to ask you to think about that. If you are going out to pubs or restaurants or going to other people’s houses regularly because as I have said before this is not easy – nobody’s life should be feeling absolutely normal yet. Nobody’s social life should feel exactly as it was before Covid struck.

The guidance we are publishing today will only work if all of us, as customers, individuals, as citizens, play our part. So I would encourage everybody to read the guidance, think about it, and help our hospitality businesses stay open.

This is not easy and I am very aware as I have just read through the rules and regulations there, that it is complicated. So please, if you are going out, take the time to familiarise yourself with the guidance first and try to stick to it when you are out.

And as I said yesterday, I have said before, wherever you are, assume the virus is in the room with you, because it very possibly is and therefore everything you do in sticking to these rules is denying it the opportunities to spread.

And lastly, just let me repeat my warning yesterday about house parties or gatherings. They pose a real risk and again the data we have from Test and Protect show that they are a driver of transmission right now, just as hospitality premises are.

So remember, in your own home or in a friend’s house, no more than eight people from no more than three households should be gathering together. And you must keep a 2 metre distance from people from different households. It’s pain for everybody to be living this way but it is better than having this virus run out of control.

So please, I am appealing to everybody, to be very conscious about everything you are doing in this regard right now.

And that brings me to the fundamental point but the one I want to end on, and it is one you have heard me make so many times before but it is really important that we all understand it.

Ultimately, the spread of this virus, whether it accelerates again or we manage to keep it under control, comes down to the decisions all of us are making as individuals.

So we need to think very carefully about those decisions. It’s quite simple, if we all stick to the rules and the guidance, then we don’t completely eradicate the risk of this virus because that’s not how viruses work, but we massively reduce the risks of it spreading from one of us to another and from one household to another.

So, please think carefully about this. Aberdeen tells us that we can go backwards in this journey out of lockdown just as easily, perhaps more easily if we are not careful than we can go forwards.

So, I’ll end with my usual reminder of the FACTS campaign. It is so important that everybody follows these five golden rules.

Face coverings, shops, public transport already the law of course, but in any enclosed space

Avoid crowded places. That obviously is really important indoors but it is important outdoors as well

Clean your hands obsessively and clean hard surfaces, that you are touching, obsessively as well

Two metre distancing remains the rule

and Self isolate, and book a test, if you have any of the symptoms.

Let me remind you what the symptoms are because I have heard one or two suggestions in recent days that people are still not familiar with the symptoms to look out for, which is understandable, so let me remind you.

A new cough, a fever, or a loss of or change to your sense of taste or smell. Any one of these symptoms or anything that is worrying you around with that,don’t wait to see if you feel better. Go to NHS inform and book a test straight away and apart from going to get the test, self-isolate immediately because that helps us straight away reduce and break those potential chains of transmission.

So, thank you again for doing all of this and please, my final point before handing over to the Justice Secretary, is for those of you watching this and hearing this directly, please help me get this message to as wide an audience as possible by passing it on to your family members, who might be at work or school, passing it on to your friends, people you work with.

We all have a job to do here to make sure everybody knows what we should be doing and shouldn’t be doing and all of us stick to that.

First Minister hammers home the STAY AT HOME message

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St. Andrew’s House, Edinburgh on Monday 11 May:

Good afternoon. Thanks for joining us for today’s briefing.

I want to start – as I always do – by updating you on some of the key statistics in relation to COVID-19 in Scotland.

As at 9 o’clock this morning, there have been 13,627 positive cases confirmed – an increase of 141 from yesterday.

A total of 1,453 patients are in hospital with COVID-19 – that is a decrease of 31 from yesterday.

A total of 80 people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected COVID 19. That is a decrease of 2 since yesterday.

I am also able to confirm today that since 5 March, a total of 3114 patients who had tested positive for the virus have been able to leave hospital. I wish all of them well.

And unfortunately I also have to report that in the last 24 hours, 5 deaths have been registered of patients who had been confirmed through a test as having COVID-19 – that takes the total number of deaths in Scotland, under that measurement, to 1,862.

I want to emphasise again today that those figures should be treated with some caution. Although deaths can be registered at weekends, registration numbers at weekends are usually relatively low, and can be particularly low following a Sunday. This should be taken into account when looking at today’s figures.

And as always, I want to stress that these numbers are not simply statistics. They represent individuals whose loss is being felt deeply by their loved ones. I want to send my deepest condolences to everyone who is grieving as a result of this virus.

I also want to thank, as I always do, our health and care workers. You are doing extraordinary work going above and beyond the extra mile in incredibly challenging circumstances. All of us owe you a huge debt of gratitude.

In a moment, I’ll ask the Cabinet Secretary to set out the details of a new wellbeing programme which is being launched today – to support the mental health of those working in our health and care sector, at this very difficult time.

Before that, there are two items I want to address.

Firstly, the Scottish Government has today published our second coronavirus bill.

The Bill includes a range further measures, to help Scotland through this pandemic. Among other things, it provides additional support for unpaid carers.

It ensures that Carers Allowance recipients will receive an extra payment, on top of the Carers Allowance Supplement. That will see around 83,000 carers receive an additional £230 – to support them through this period.

Being a carer is incredibly demanding at the best of times – and I know it’s only more difficult right now. So I want to thank each and every one of Scotland’s carers for the incredibly important role that you are playing.

The bill is due to go through parliament in the next two weeks. And I hope that when it does, this additional payment – alongside the other support we’re providing – helps to make things a little bit easier for you.

The second item I want to cover today concerns the lockdown restrictions.

Last night, the Prime Minister set out some of the details of his plan, for easing restrictions in England. More of the detail of that has emerged this morning – and will continue to come out, during the day.

I want to reiterate that those announcements do not apply here. That is not, I want to stress, for any political reason. It is because the Scottish Government is not yet confident that these changes can be made in Scotland without us running the risk of the virus potentially running out of control. Scotland’s lockdown restrictions remain in place for now.

And our key message remains the same.

We need you to stay at home. We do not, at this point, want to see more businesses opening up – or more people going to work. We do not yet want to see more people using public transport. And we are not yet changing who can or should be at school.

The only change we’ve made, here in Scotland is to the guidance on exercise.

As of today, we have removed the once-a-day limit on exercise. It means that – if you want to go for a walk more often – or to go for a run and also a walk – then you can now do so.

That change obviously doesn’t apply if you or someone in your household has symptoms of COVID-19, or if you received a letter explaining that you are in the shielded group. In those cases, you should still stay at home completely.

For everybody else, you will still need to stay relatively close to your own home. And at all times, you need to stay at least 2 metres away from people from other households.

I also want to stress that by exercise we mean activities like walking or running or cycling – not sunbathing or having a picnic. This does not give people a license to meet up, at the park or at the beach.

It’s just one very minor change to the existing rules. But all of the restrictions in Scotland for now remain in place.

And let me, for a moment, give one example of why this matters.

I read this morning, in the Evening Times, the tragic story of a family in Castlemilk, Glasgow.

Andy Leaman has told how his mum, dad and father in law have all died from the virus. He talks too of the impact on his nine year old daughter.

Their story is heartbreaking. And it could be any of us.

That family have told their story because they want people to listen to the advice.

In today’s paper they say: “People need to realise it’s real. The guidelines that are set out need to be followed.

“It may be them next and their families, and we would not want anyone to go through what we have had to go through.

“Stay in the house, social distance. That is the way to keep people you love safe.”

I think that is a very powerful message. It underlines the importance of the restrictions – and why we need to stick with them.

So to close today, I want to reiterate today – simply and I hope clearly – what the restrictions continue to be while our progress against this potentially deadly virus remains fragile.

Except for essential purposes such as exercise, buying food or medicines, or going to do essential work that you can’t do from home – you should not be going out. You must stay at home.

If you do go out, you should stay more than two meters from other people, and you should not be meeting up with people from other households.

You should wear a face covering if you are in a shop or on public transport.

And you should isolate completely if you or someone else in your household has symptoms.

I know that these restrictions continue to be extremely tough. And I know that hearing any talk about easing the lockdown, might make them seem even tougher. But please, stick with it.

We are making progress. But to combat this virus, we still need to stay apart from each other. We still need to stay at home.

And the more we do that now, the sooner we will be able to ease more of these restrictions.

I set out yesterday the further changes that we are considering making as soon as we judge it safe to do so.

We all want to see our friends and families – we all miss them more with each day that passes. We all want to see children go back to school, and we all desperately want to get back to some kind of normality.

Please know that I want all of that too – I want that as your First Minister.

But I also want it as an ordinary person who is missing my own family very much.

But I know we will get there more quickly if we all keep doing the right thing now.

If we take our foot off the brake too soon, the real danger is we will end up in this lockdown for longer – and worse of all, we will lose many more people along the way.

None of us want that. So please be patient. And please try not to get distracted by messages from other parts of the UK. All governments across the UK are trying to do the right thing and all of us have a responsibility to take the steps we think are right, at the right time.

So please if you live in Scotland, abide by the law that applies here and follow the Scottish Government guidance.

Can I also make a respectful plea to the media. Your scrutiny role is essential and you perform it robustly – rightly so. But at a time like this – when health is at stake – all of us have a public duty too. Please make it clear to your readers, listeners and viewers what the actual situation is in different parts of the UK.

Moving at different speeds in different parts of the UK for good, evidence based reasons need not be a cause of confusion – indeed other countries are taking different steps in different areas at different times.

Confusion only arises if we as politicians and the media who report on us are either unclear in what we are asking people to do – or if we give a misleading impression that decisions that apply to one nation only are actually UK wide.

Never has the duty on political leaders to communicate clearly been greater. And in the provision of basic public health information, I hope the media will continue – as you most of you have been doing – to appreciate the importance of that too.

This matters to all of us.

If we see continued high compliance with the restrictions in Scotland for a bit longer, we will continue to slow the spread of the virus, we will protect the NHS, we will save lives and we will all move on quickly to the day when these restrictions start to be eased.

Thank you, once again, to everyone who is doing that.

First Minister: testing target exceeded but lockdown vigilance remains vital

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, on Friday, 1 May:

Good afternoon. Thanks for joining us for today’s briefing.

I’ll start with an update on some of the key statistics in relation to Covid-19 in Scotland.

As at 9 o’clock this morning, there have been 11,654 positive cases confirmed – an increase of 301 from yesterday.

A total of 1809 patients are in hospital with Covid-19 – that is an increase of 61 from yesterday.

A total of 110 people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected Covid 19. That is an increase of one since yesterday.

I am also able to confirm today that since 5 March, a total of 2,659 patients who had tested positive for the virus have been able to leave hospital. I wish all of them well.

However I also have to report that in the last 24 hours, 40 deaths have been registered of patients who had been confirmed through a test as having Covid-19 – that takes the total number of deaths in Scotland, under that measurement, to 1,515.

I stress this every day, but it is important – I never think of these numbers as statistics. They represent individuals whose loss is a source of sorrow to many. So once again, I send my deepest condolences to everyone who is grieving.

I also want to thank – as I always do – our health and care workers. The entire country deeply appreciates everything you are doing for us.

As I indicated yesterday, I want to use today’s briefing to give a progress report on Coronavirus testing.

I’ll say more next week about the longer-term strategy for testing. I’ll set out then how what’s called a ‘Test, Trace and Isolate’ approach will play a part in helping us emerge gradually from lockdown, and I’ll set out what we are doing to prepare for such an approach.

Today, though, I will look at where we are now, and report progress on two separate but obviously related matters.

Firstly, the laboratory capacity we now have in Scotland to process tests and secondly, the number of tests per day that were carried out as of yesterday.

Please, in advance, forgive me for the number of statistics that I am about to cite.

Finally, I will set out the next steps we will take to expand testing in this phase, to help our efforts to suppress the virus, especially in care homes.

So let me start with the daily capacity to process tests.

At the beginning of April, I said that by the end of the month I wanted us to have testing capacity within our NHS labs of 3,500 tests a day.

For context, at the start of the Coronavirus outbreak, we had two NHS labs, one in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh, that between them could do 350 tests a day.

I can confirm that we now have NHS labs operating in all 14 health board areas.

And yesterday, we met our target of having the capacity to process 3,500 tests per day, In fact, we exceeded it. As of now, we have active lab capacity for 4350 tests a day to be carried out within the NHS.

And by the end of next week, the capacity within the NHS will increase further to around 6,500 tests per day, and we are aiming to reach 8,000 by the middle of this month.

I also promised that we would work to ensure that Scotland benefited from UK wide efforts to reach capacity of 100,000 tests per day.

We are doing that. The Lighthouse Laboratory based at Glasgow University – which became operational last week – is one of three Lighthouse Centres across the UK.

The majority of the samples tested there are taken from the regional drive through testing centres in Scotland – in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Perth – and the new mobile testing sites that are being established, all as part of the UK government network.

The Glasgow University lab has a current testing capacity of 4,000 tests a day, though that will reduce to 2,000 a day for the next four days as they move to a new shift system, before increasing to 4,000 again from Tuesday.

So in summary on capacity – between the 4350 tests that can now be processed in our NHS labs and the 4,000 in the Lighthouse Lab, the total normal daily capacity for Coronovirus testing in Scotland is now 8,350.

And with the further projected increases in NHS capacity that I mentioned a moment ago, I expect that to be at least 10,500 by this time next week and 12,000 by the middle of the month.

That is a significant increase in capacity and I pay tribute to all those who have worked so hard to achieve it – both in our NHS Scotland labs and in the UK government testing network.

But of course laboratory capacity is one thing. What matters is the volume of testing we do and the clinical objectives we set for that. So we are also working to increase the number of tests that are carried out and extend categories for testing to better equip us to suppress the virus.

It is really important to stress that fluctuations in demand mean that we will never perfectly match number of tests to capacity. It is also the case that for good clinical reasons, many people need more than one test, so the number of tests carried out will never equal the number of people tested. But our aim is to use as much of our capacity each day as possible.

Given that our capacity has now expanded significantly, that means we can further extend eligibility for testing – which I will come on to shortly.

But, firstly, let me report on the numbers we reached yesterday for tests carried out.

Between tests in hospitals, care homes and the community, I can confirm that there were 2,537 NHS tests carried out yesterday.

In total since the start of this outbreak, 74,984 NHS tests have been carried out.

In addition, 2,124 tests were carried out yesterday at the regional drive through testing centres. These figures have not previously been included in our daily figures – they will be from now on, though because this is data coming to us from the UK wide system, it will be a few more days until we can break it down into positive and negative tests.

In total, therefore, I can confirm that 4,661 tests were carried out across Scotland yesterday, with 4,187 people tested.

The final statistic I want to give you relates to key workers. 22,400 keyworkers or their family members have now been tested within the NHS system, over 4000 of those in the last week alone.

Given the increases in capacity we have seen in the last week – and to ensure that we are fully utilising that capacity – it is clear that we can now extend eligibility for testing further, so I want now to turn to those next steps.

It is important to stress, though, that this should not simply be an exercise in driving up numbers. Tests, particularly for frail, older people, can be invasive and unpleasant, so our decisions must always be clinically driven.

As we know, tackling the spread of the virus is an urgent priority everywhere, but particularly in our care homes.

Currently around 40% of our care homes have cases of coronavirus within them. We already test care home residents with symptoms, those being admitted to care homes and symptomatic care home staff. I can confirm that we will now expand that approach.

We now intend to undertake enhanced outbreak investigation in all care homes where there are any cases of COVID – this will involve testing, subject to individuals’ consent, all residents and staff, whether or not they have symptoms.

In addition, where a care home with an outbreak is part of a group or chain and staff might still be moving between homes, we will also carry out urgent testing in any linked homes.

We will also begin sampling testing in care homes where there are no cases. By definition this will also include testing residents and staff who are not symptomatic.

This is a significant expansion and we do not underestimate the logistical and workforce requirements.

Now we have the increasing testing capacity, we will make it happen as swiftly as practicable.

I am delighted to say that Jill Young, Chief Executive of the Louisa Jordan Hospital, has agreed to lead the team tasked with delivery of this and NHS Boards and their partners will put this into effect from next week.

I am also able to confirm today an extension of eligibility for testing through the UK wide booking system and drive through and mobile testing centres.

As of now, we are expanding eligibility to include all those over the age of 65 with symptoms and their households, and in addition to keyworkers, anyone – although there should not be many people in this group – who is not a keyworker, but who has to leave home to go to work.

We will take steps over the coming days to increase public awareness of the ability of eligible groups to book tests through this system.

If there is high demand there may be a need for an online queuing system, and if capacity is insufficient we will work with the UK government on further expansion. We will also work flexibly between the two testing systems to ensure we make the most of the total capacity we have.

So in summary, over the past month we have made significant strides in our testing capacity in Scotland.

We have not just met the target of having the capacity for 3,500 tests a day within the NHS but exceeded it. That, coupled with our participation in the UK wide system means there is current capacity for more than 8,000 tests per day in Scotland. And through further NHS work, that will expand further in the next week.

Over 4,000 tests were carried out yesterday, and now that we have that increased and increasing capacity we have been able to announce a further expansion of testing within care homes and also extend those within the general public who can access a test.

As I said at the outset, the expansion of testing that I set out today is separate and distinct from our move to establish a Test, Trace, Isolate system as part of our approach to changing, and hopefully alleviating, the lockdown measures while continuing to suppress the virus.

We will set out more detail on that next week but I should stress that will require us to increase our capacity even further than the levels I have been able to report today.

In a moment, the Health Secretary will set out one final piece of information about testing – our use of antibody testing.

Before that, though, I want to stress this.

Testing is a really important of our efforts to tackle this virus. It is important now and will be important in the next phase.

But it remains the case that, right now, the most important thing we are all doing is staying at home and following the lockdown rules.

As I said yesterday, that is making a difference and allowing us to see some light at the end of the tunnel. But that progress is fragile and if we ease up now, that light could be extinguished.

So please, especially as we head into another weekend, please stick with it. Thank you again for your compliance and for doing the right thing in the interests of the whole country.

Environment Secretary’s statement on coronavirus: Sunday 26 April

UK Environment Secretary George Eustace spoke at the daily government press conference on 26 April 2020 to give the latest update on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Good afternoon, and welcome to today’s Downing Street Press Conference. I’m pleased to be joined today by Stephen Powis, the National Medical Director of NHS England.

Before I update you on the latest developments in the food supply chain, let me first give you an update on the latest data from the COBR coronavirus data file. Through the government’s ongoing monitoring and testing programme, as of today:

669,850 tests for coronavirus have now been carried out in the UK, including 29,058 tests carried out yesterday;
152,840 people have tested positive, that’s an increase of 4,463 cases since yesterday;
15,953 people are currently in hospital with the coronavirus in the UK, down from 16,411 on 25 April.

And sadly, of those hospitalised with the virus, 20,732 have now died. That is an increase of 413 fatalities since yesterday.

We express our deepest condolences to the families and friends of these victims.

At the beginning of the outbreak of this virus we saw significant problems in panic buying. That episode quickly subsided and food availability now is back to normal levels and has been for several weeks. All supermarkets have introduced social distancing measures to protect both their staff and their customers and it is essential that shoppers respect these measures.

The food supply chain has also seen a significant reduction in staff absence over recent weeks. As staff who had been self-isolating through suspected coronavirus symptoms have returned to work.

So absence levels are down from a peak of typically 20% in food businesses three weeks ago to less than 10% at the end of last week and in some cases individual companies reporting absences as low as 6%.

We have put in place measures to support the clinically vulnerable. So far 500,000 food parcels have been delivered to the shielded group, that is those who cannot leave home at all due to a clinical condition that they have.

In addition, the major supermarkets have agreed to prioritise delivery slots for those in this shielded group. So far over 300,000 such deliveries have been made, enabling people to shop normally and choose the goods that they want to buy.

We recognise that there are others who are not clinically vulnerable and therefore are not in that shielded group but who may also be in need of help.

Perhaps through having a disability or another type of medical condition, or indeed, being unable to draw on family and neighbours to help them. We have been working with local authorities to ensure that those people can be allocated a volunteer shopper to help them get their food needs. Charities such as Age UK and others can now also make also direct referrals on the Good Samaritan App to locate volunteers for those in need.

Many supermarkets have taken steps to increase the number of delivery slots that they have. At the beginning of this virus outbreak there were typically 2.1 million delivery slots in the entire supermarket chain.

That has now increased to 2.6 million, and over the next couple of weeks we anticipate that that will grow further to 2.9 million. So supermarkets have taken steps to increase their capacity but while this capacity has expanded, it will still not be enough to meet all of the demand that is out there.

Some supermarkets have already chosen to prioritise some vulnerable customers with a proportion of the delivers slots that they have and others have offered to work with us and also local authorities to help establish a referral system so that when somebody is in desperate need, a local authority is able to make a referral to make sure that they can get a priority slot.

As we look forward more generally towards the next stage in our battle against this virus, there are encouraging signs of progress, but before we consider it safe to adjust any of the current social distancing measures, we must be satisfied that we have met the five tests set out last week by the First Secretary.

Those tests mean that the NHS can continue to cope;

that the daily death rate falls sustainably and consistently;
that the rate of infection is decreasing; and operational challenges have been met;
and, most important of all, that there is no risk of a second peak.

For now, the most important thing we can all do to stop the spread of the coronavirus is to stay at home, to protect the NHS and save lives.

I want to pay tribute to all those who are working throughout the food supply chain from farmers, manufacturers and retailers. The response of this industry to ensure that we have the food that we need has been truly phenomenal.

Thank you.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) update Scotland: Sunday 26th April

Statement given by the Health Secretary Jeane Freeman at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, on Sunday 26 April:

Good afternoon. Thanks once again to all of you for taking part in this media conference.

I want to start with an update on some of the key statistics in relation to COVID-19 in Scotland.

As at 9 o’clock this morning, there have been 10,324 positive cases confirmed – an increase of 273 from yesterday’s figures.

As always, let me be clear that these numbers will be an underestimate.

A total of 1,735 patients are in hospital with COVID-19 – this is a decrease of 13 from yesterday.

And a total of 133 people were last night in intensive care with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19. This is a decrease of seven since yesterday.

It is with sadness that I report that 18 further deaths have been registered, of people who had tested positive for COVID-19. That takes the total number of deaths in Scotland, under that measure, to 1,249.

As I have said previously at these Sunday briefings, these figures should be treated with some caution. Although deaths can be registered at weekends, registration numbers are usually relatively low. This should be taken into account when looking at today’s figures.

And of course, the number of deaths that is reported every day is so much more than a statistic. Each death represents an individual whose loss will be a source of grief and sorrow to many, and I want to extend my deepest condolences to all of those who have lost loved ones.

As Health Secretary, I also want to thank once again those who are working in our health and care sector, for the incredible work that you are doing.

Those thanks are due to everyone – the doctors and the nurses, the paramedics, the care home staff, the porters, the cooks, the healthcare assistants, the cleaners and many, many more.

Your work is crucial to the health and wellbeing of our country. You will have the same worries and anxieties as the rest of us but you go to work each day, putting that aside to care for others. All of us are truly grateful to you for everything that you are doing

I have two issues I want to update you on today. The first is about people volunteering to join or re-join the NHS and care workforce.

It is now almost four weeks since – as part of our ‘Scotland Cares’ campaign – we established a web portal for students, and former NHS and care workers, to apply to work in the NHS or the care sector, as they respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In total, more than 22,000 people have now volunteered.

The volunteers include experienced former staff, doctors, nurses, social care professionals and nursing, medicine, midwifery, and Allied Health professional students who are either now graduated or coming towards the completion of their training.

We are working with NHS Education for Scotland, our health boards and the Scottish Social Services Council to ensure that volunteers can start work as quickly as possible – while still following the correct induction and training processes.

A number of volunteers have been placed with NHS boards, and more than 3,000 are completing their pre-employment checks – which are being fast-tracked – just prior to being deployed.

The Scottish Social Services Council has placed almost 150 people into work in the care sector, and a further 200 are ready and available for deployment.

Not everyone who has applied to help us will be needed immediately.

But please bear with us – your volunteering and your offer to bring your skills and your talents really does matter, and we will need you, as we go through this pandemic.

Having such a large number of volunteers really matters – it provides us with important flexibility, as we look at staffing needs through the different stages of this pandemic.

I am immensely grateful to everyone who has offered to support our NHS and care services in this way.

The second point I want to update you on is support for those who are shielding. That term, as you know, refers to approximately 160,000 people in Scotland, who are at the highest clinical risk from COVID-19, and who are therefore being asked to isolate themselves completely.

A text message service has been in place for almost a month now, so that people who are shielding can ask for support and receive information.

So far, more than 78,000 people have registered for the text service. I would encourage everyone who is shielding to register.

Even if you don’t need additional help at the moment, as many people don’t, registering will be useful if you ever do need that further help.

You should have received information on how to do that – letters to people who are shielding started to go out on 26th March. But I will also read out the number of our national helpline in a minute or so.

One of the services which you can request by text is free delivery of food packages. More than 80,000 food packages have been delivered so far.

In addition, six supermarkets are offering priority deliveries for people who are shielding.

Over 33,000 people have expressed an interest in these priority slots, and we have passed their information on to the participating supermarkets.

Supermarkets have also identified and contacted existing customers who are eligible for priority slots and many have already received deliveries.

And people who were not existing customers of any of the participating supermarkets, received texts last week with details of how to register.

If you don’t have a mobile phone, you can get access to these services through your local authority. Our national helpline will direct you to the local authority that applies to you.

It is a good way of finding information more generally about the support, which is available. The national helpline number is 0800 111 4000, and the line is open between 9am and 5pm every weekday.

I know for many of the people who are shielding, this is a worrying time, and also a very difficult time. Staying at home all the time is necessary for your own protection – but I know that it is even harder than the restrictions which are in place for everyone else.

We are determined to ensure that support is available for you throughout this time – so please, make use of that support if you need to.

Before I hand over to Fiona McQueen, our Chief Nursing Officer, and to Jason Leitch, the National Clinical Director, I want to emphasise once again the importance of sticking to our public health guidance.

Stay at home – unless it is for essential purposes such as exercising once a day, or buying food or medicine.

When you do go out, stay two metres away from other people, and don’t meet up with people in other households.

And wash your hands thoroughly and regularly.

These restrictions are tough – and I know they get tougher as the weeks go by, and especially when the weather stays warm. But they continue to be essential. They are the way in which all of us can slow the spread of the virus, protect our NHS, and save lives.

So thank you once again to everyone who is doing the right thing and staying at home. You are making a difference, and you are saving lives, and I thank you very much indeed.