First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says planning is set to get under way on Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown exit strategy but restrictions will remain in place for at least three weeks
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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says work on a strategy to ease the coronavirus lockdown will begin next week – though restrictions will remain in place for at least three weeks yet.
For a second week this afternoon saw the First Minister field questions remotely from opposition party leaders.
She said: "My clear advice is that we must continue the lockdown measures for at least another three weeks, because while we are increasingly confident that these measures are working, we are not confident enough that the virus has been suppressed sufficiently to lift any of these measures – because the risk of doing that would be a resurgence, which would be extremely damaging.
"We will not begin to do so until I am convinced we have done as much as necessary to suppress the virus, and that we have a clear plan in place to contain it."
After yesterday’s revelations that one quarter of all coronavirus deaths in Scotland so far have been amongst residents in care homes Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard asked about the impact of staff absence.
He said: “Trade unions have described our care homes as a crisis within a crisis and today’s newspapers report soaring levels of staff absenteeism in the care home sector.
“The Scottish Government has repeatedly been asked how many workers have been tested and we have repeatedly been promised those figures would be published on a regular basis. Does the Scottish Government know this figure?”
The First Minister said: “Over 12,300 health and care workers where appropriate have been tested and just under 20 per cent of that 12,300 are in the social care sector.
“More generally – the care home situation and your characterisation of a 'crisis within a crisis' – what we have got to recognise is that we know this is a virus that older people are more susceptible to become seriously unwell with or dying from.
“We also know that in any institution, including care homes, there will be a greater degree of susceptibility to spread an infection like this – so that makes it all the more important that we treat care homes with more care and attention, and that is what we are doing.”
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