Don’t panic over this new variant
Sturgeon says more analysis needed
FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said there is no need to “hit the panic button” over the new variant of coronavirus.
The new strain of the virus has been found in South Africa, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong, but no cases have yet been reported in the UK.
Little is known about the variant but the four nations of the UK have added South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia to the travel red list as a precaution.
Speaking ahead of the start of the SNP conference,
Sturgeon said: “I don’t think we should get ahead of ourselves and I don’t think we should be pressing the panic button around any of this.
“But there is no doubt that developments in the last 24 hours around this new variant are the most significant and the most concerning that we have had in the last few months.
“We still need more data, more analysis – we’re monitoring it very carefully, but given the level of concern about the potential of this new variant, we’ve taken highly precautionary action in restricting travel and asking for self-isolation of people coming from certain countries.
“That’s the appropriate action to take at this stage, but we will be looking carefully at developments over the days to come.”
Her comments come as
Scotland recorded 21 coronavirus-linked deaths and 2888 new cases in the past 24 hours. It takes the death toll to 9545.
The daily test positivity rate was 9.1 per cent, according to the data published by the Scottish Government yesterday, up from 7.2 per cent the previous day. The latest figures show 734 people were in hospital on Thursday with Covid-19 and, of these, 60 were in intensive care.