BAN COULD LAST UNTIL SUMMER
First Minister announces volunteer programme to open
THERE are warnings movement restrictions to halt the spread of coronavirus could last until June. Scotland’s chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood sounded the message yesterday as said the virus was likely to peak in two to three weeks.
She warned “some sort of measures” were needed for “at least 13 weeks” to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Dr Calderwood’s warning comes as the number of coronavirus cases in Greater Glasgow breached the 400 mark. The Scottish death toll rose to 41 yesterday.
Dr Calderwood said: “I think we’ve seen really good evidence of people taking themselves back into their homes [and] not going out nearly as much this week.”
She added that “disappointing sights” of people up hills and on beaches is “why we have really pushed for people to stay at home except for very essential shopping trips [and] a little bit of exercise once a day... but really not to see anyone if at all possible outside your own household”.
She added: “We’ve now had quite significant lockdown-type measures in the UK for a week, we know that we can tell whether that’s making a difference within two weeks to three weeks so that modelling is being relooked at.
“We [will] have a peak, I think probably, at the same time across the UK, but maybe of different size.
“London has been hit very hard, we’ve seen those numbers increase over the last number of weeks.”
Dr Calderwood was speaking shortly after the Scottish Government announced a further patient had died from Covid-19 yesterday with more than 1380 people testing positive for the virus across the country.
Greater Glasgow and Clyde has the most cases with 401, followed by Lothian with 188 and Lanarkshire with 184.
Scotland is currently conducting around 800 tests for Covid-19 a day but Dr Calderwood said on Friday that the true figure for those infected with coronavirus could be more than 65,000.
Speaking at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh, First Minister
Nicola Sturgeon also revealed that 95 people in Scotland are in care with Covid-19 or symptoms of the virus and that the number of cases is “growing quite rapidly”.
Sturgeon announced a new volunteer programme for those who wish to help in the fight against Covid-19.
The programme will allow people to register their interest on ReadyScotland.org.
Returning health and social care workers will be directed to existing programmes while those who wish to volunteer more generally can sign up to become a Community Reserve Volunteer.
The programme will be co-ordinated by the Red Cross and a wider campaign will launch on TV and radio from today.
Addressing concerns over a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers, Sturgeon said 34 million items have been delivered to hospitals over the last four to six weeks and that health boards now have a “single point of contact for managing PPE distribution”.
Eight weeks’ worth of PPE will be delivered to GP surgeries this week, she added, and additional staff will be employed to meet the demand in the social care sector for the items. Sturgeon also confirmed that the armed forces are considering establishing a new hospital facility at the Exhibition Centre in Glasgow.