The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
A sign has been hung up by a wellwisher near the entrance to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee as the community showed its support for frontline Covid-19 workers as they joined in a national Clap for our Carers event last night.
Chief medical officer says figures so far could be underestimation and urges people to keep adhering to the lockdown
Up to 50,000 people across Scotland could already be infected with coronavirus.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood has said an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Scots could have contracted Covid-19 already – and many of them are unaware they have it.
It comes as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Scotland rose to 894 – with 76 of those in Tayside and 40 in Fife. Locally, this is a rise of 30 from Wednesday.
The country’s death toll has reached 25, with 57 people now in intensive care after contracting the virus.
Dr Calderwod said: “We have seen in Scotland the number of confirmed cases rise and once again the number of deaths has risen.”
She warned the latest figures for Scotland, showing almost 900 people have tested positive for Covid-19, are a “very significant underestimate”.
She said: “We are probably looking at the order of 40,000 to 50,000 people in Scotland who are now infected with coronavirus.
“Many of them don’t yet know they are infected nor indeed do they realise they are potentially going to infect those around them.
“It has been very encouraging to see the empty streets and the empty shops and the empty transport in Scotland. “This is going to be a long haul.” She told Scots the coming weekend will be “unlike others you’ve ever experienced”.
Dr Calderwood warned Scots to “not relax those rules” in the coming days. “The virus is out there,” she added. “You don’t know who has it. Stay away from as many people as possible.”
She added: “We still remain behind particularly London but also behind other parts of England as to the number of cases and that pressure on the NHS – both acute beds and intensive care beds.
“We have perhaps put these suppression measures in earlier on that up-slope of the curve and what we hope, therefore, is that that rapid acceleration is perhaps not as rapid as has been seen in other parts of the country.
“It is not that I am saying it is not going to be rapid. But perhaps not as rapid, particularly when we have got good compliance with these suppression measures.”
Dr Caldwerwood revealed detailed discussions have taken place about setting up a field hospital in Scotland.
She said: “We have had quite detailed discussions very recently and I know there are sites being considered.”
The chief medical officer told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland that supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline medical staff should also improve this week.
She said: “I’m hearing from my colleagues in the NHS.
“They really are worried and this makes me very uncomfortable, to send people to work on the frontline when they are worried that the masks in particular will run low or run out.”
Dr Calderwood explained there is a “global shortage of protective equipment”, saying this is “in part because the factories in China where most of these are made have been shut down for so many weeks”.
However, she said new supplies have been released to health and care workers this week, with the NHS also taking steps to improve the distribution of such vital items.
Dr Calderwood explained large orders for items such as masks have “clogged up the system” but added the distribution system had now been changed.
“The virus is out there. You don’t know who has it. Stay away from as many people as possible. DR CATHERINE CALDERWOOD
The estimate by Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr Catherine Calderwood, that up to 50,000 Scots may already have Covid-19 is alarming. Without universal testing that figure cannot be more than an educated guess, but it gives a sense of the true picture in our communities right now and the speed in which coronavirus is spreading.
It is a frightening prospect and one that is underlined by the rising death toll and the number of people who are becoming seriously unwell.
But, amid all of the doom and gloom, there are reasons to be positive.
The NHS may still have many hurdles to overcome – not least the twin problem of hardware in the form of intensive care beds, ventilators and a lack of qualified people able to operate them – but its response to this crisis becomes stronger and more robust by the day.
Staff – and the wider care community – have been working above and beyond the call of duty to prepare for the expected onslaught from Covid-19.
They have been truly indefatigable and it is heartening to see wider society recognise those sterling efforts through initiatives such as last night’s Clap for our Carers event.
There is also a huge amount off goodwill in our communities, with families, friends and neighbours going the extra mile to ensure the most vulnerable stay safe.
It is an attitude that will do us all well in the weeks ahead.