Mobile testing unit in hotspot
A mobile testing unit has arrived in Hamilton in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus across the area.
It comes after First Minister Nicola
Sturgeon was tackled about the situation in the town.
Last week we reported how Hamilton had been highlighted as a hotspot area, accounting for almost half the cases in South Lanarkshire.
The region has seen some of the highest rates of new Covid-19 cases in Scotland over recent weeks – with some neighbourhoods in the Hamilton area seeing cases rising five times faster than the national average.
And the latest weekly figures (October 1218) from Public Health Scotland show South Lanarkshire had 1010 new coronavirus cases – a rise of 122 on the previous week.
The situation in Hamilton prompted a question from Central Scotland MSP Monica Lennon to the First Minister during a virtual session of the Scottish Parliament.
Ms Lennon said: “South Lanarkshire is currently the council area with the highest positivity rate, where the Hamilton area is accounting for almost half of all Covid-19 cases.
“What is the Scottish Government’s understanding of what factors are at play in Hamilton, Larkhall and the South Lanarkshire area?
“Can I ask the First Minister what other resources will be made available to NHS Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire Council in the days and weeks ahead?”
Following the question, it was confirmed last Thursday, October 15, that a mobile testing unit would be coming to Hamilton.
It is now in place at the car park next to the town’s Low Parks Museum.
The First Minister said: “There are resources that we are seeking to make available and we’ll set those out in detail.
“Testing and the provision of local access to testing through mobile testing units and increasingly the new walk-in centres that are being established is important.
“Through innovation technologically, we’re increasingly starting to trial and hopefully then use point of care testing technology which again will allow much greater ease of access.
“We know that certain areas have particularly high levels of infection and that is guiding the decisions we are taking.
“I would say the information is available through the new Public Health Scotland resource where anybody can go and see the current infection level in their own neighbourhood.
“It’s very localised information and our incident management teams that look at the situations locally and nationally will use the data to guide the decisions we are taking.”
Labour’s shadow health spokesperson, Ms Lennon, welcomed the mobile test centre coming to Hamilton but asked if the government were considering extending school holidays in October like what has happened in Northern Ireland to help reduce the spread of the virus.
Ms Sturgeon added: “Much of what we are doing right now and one of the reasons why we took the decisions to impose household and hospitality restrictions at a relatively early stage was that we want to keep schools open.
“It is really important for the wellbeing and education of young people that we do so.
“We can’t rule anything out in the face of what we are dealing with right now, but a key objective is not to have schools close beyond the normal holiday periods.”