Number of intensive care beds trebles as First Minister is wary of 'reading too much' into lower infection and death rate figures
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For the second day in a row the Scottish Government has urged caution as the First Minister revealed the number of new infections and deaths in the country due to Covid-19 has slowed over the weekend.
Appearing alongside her, health secretary Jeane Freeman said NHS Scotland is well on its way to reaching its goal of quadrupling the original number of intensive care beds available across the country.
Despite already having trebled ICU bed capacity, more work is underway to reach the goal of quadrupling the number of beds while Ms Sturgeon called for caution in reading too much into the new numbers.
That was down to two testing centres, one in Ayrshire and Arran and a second in Tayside, which had not come back with the numbers of results and that generally less deaths are reported at the weekend.
A new helpline will also be launched from tomorrow, she confirmed, for those who though not in the so-called shielded category who must isolate themselves for 12 weeks are still vulnerable and need support. The number to request assistance is 0800 111 4000.
Finally, Ms Sturgeon once again underlined that the lock down is unlikely to be lifted “in the near future” as there were “optimistic signs that the steps we are taking are working.”
She said: “There is, of course, due to be a review of these restrictions this week but I want today to be very clear so that nobody is under any illusion that review is not likely to result in these restrictions being lifted in the very near future.
“There are early optimistic signs that the steps we are taking are working but until we know more, until we have solid evidence, we must stick with it – we all want these restrictions to be lifted as soon as possible.
“As at 9 o'clock this morning there have been 6067 positive cases confirmed that is an increase of a 155 since yesterday's figures, it is however important for me to note right now that we do not yet have testing figures for the last 24 hours from labs in Tayside or Ayrshire and Arran otherwise the number that I have just reported would have been higher.
“Across Scotland, a total of 1797 patients are in hospital with Covid-19, that is an increase of 42 from the figures that were reported yesterday and a total of 200 people last night where in intensive care with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 – that is a decrease of 10 on yesterday's figures.
“Although again I would caution against reading too much into that at this stage and it is with sadness that I must report there have been nine further deaths of patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 that takes the total number of deaths in Scotland to 575.
“Though I want to sound a note of caution about that figure in two ways. Firstly, the nine that I have just reported is lower than in previous days because while it is now possible to register deaths seven days a week in Scotland.
“We will always expect the number registered to be lower than at the weekend and that is undoubtedly particularly true over the Easter weekend so I would expect the figures to be higher tomorrow and the following day.
Ms Freeman said NHS Scotland said the government is well on the way to quadrupling the original capacity of Scottish ICU beds, saying: “Boards now have a surge capacity that means they have the beds ready, the ventilators and trained staff of 585 beds – they can be resourced immediately and that in effect trebles our original capacity.
“It shows that as the virus progresses our capacity to meet anticipated demand is sufficient but boards will continue and staff will continue to be trained to reach our objective which is to quadruple the number of ICU beds to 700.”
