Conf idence in Sturgeon ‘has been shattered’

NICOLA Sturgeon has ‘shattered public confidence’ by failing to disclose vital information on Scotland’s first Covid-19 outbreak, it has been claimed.

Serious concerns have been raised about her handling of the outbreak, in which 25 people – including eight Scots – were diagnosed with Covid-19.

Miss Sturgeon has defended her actions and those of officials in tracing people who came into contact with Nike conference delegates in Edinburgh in February.

Over the weekend it emerged employees at nearby businesses fell ill with coronavirus-like symptoms just days after the event – but have yet to be contacted by medics.

On Sunday, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman was accused of pointing ‘the finger of blame’ at virus victims after she suggested those who tested positive failed to disclose sufficiently detailed information about their contacts.

Yesterday, the First Minister said contact tracers follow up on the information they are provided with and again defended her decision not to tell the public about the outbreak.

At her daily pandemic briefing, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘There were a very small number of people in Scotland at that event and all of these cases were reported through figures in the normal way.

‘Had we said, “Patient X in Y health board got it at a particular event” because they may have been the only person in that health board to be at the event, we’d have effectively been identifying them.

‘Contact tracing was done rigorously. An incident management team was set up to ensure protection of public health was absolutely at the centre of how this is managed.’ She added: ‘Contacts

‘Questions are piling up’

were identified and traced. It is for those contact tracers who are doing that to ensure from the information they are given they effectively follow up contacts.

‘That process was gone through in that case.’ She later said that she was not claiming ‘individuals hadn’t told contact tracers’.

Miss Sturgeon said it was for ‘contact tracers, using standard definition of contact, to decide then, based on the information given, who should be followed up’.

The Nike outbreak was disclosed only after it was reported in a BBC documentary last week.

The event was held on February 26 and 27 at the Hilton Carlton hotel. Officials in Scotland were advised of the first positive case from the conference on March 2.

The first Covid-19 case in Scotland was reported on March 1, with a further case confirmed to the public on March 4, though the link to the Nike conference was not revealed. Labour MP for Edinburgh South Ian Murray said: ‘The cover-up of this early and significant outbreak has shattered public confidence in the Scottish Government.

‘Questions are piling up for Nicola Sturgeon about her decision to keep this vital information secret, which we now know had consequences far and wide.’

Miss Sturgeon has emphatically denied there has been a cover-up.

She said: ‘What on earth would have been the motive for not putting more information into the public domain should it have been possible to do so.’

She added: ‘We took decisions based on the normal protocols around public notification and patient confidentiality.’