Sturgeon voices fears as Covid cases rise again across Scotland.

Leitch says it’s vital to get on top of local outbreaks as Covid is accelerating

Scotland’s national clinical director has said it is “not impossible” that Covid spread will lead to school closures or entire classes self-isolating.

Professor Jason Leitch said the virus should “not be trifled with” as he warned the global pandemic was accelerating.

And he said that until a vaccine is invented, the methods of combating the virus could be compared to the game of “whack-a-mole”.

Prof Leitch delivered his warning at Nicola Sturgeon’s daily coronavirus briefing, where it was suggested the R number, which measures Covid spread, has climbed as high as 1.4 again.

The R number is an indication of the average number of people who are infected by a single positive case of the virus.

Below one is an indication that spread is under control, and this was achieved during the lockdown.

The measurement has risen since the easing of restrictions, although Ms Sturgeon said it was less of a concern when the prevalence of the virus is as low as it is now.

She confirmed another coronavirus death but added that the patient had succumbed to the virus in mid-August and it was only now that Public Health Scotland had recorded it.

Under that measurement, the Scottish death toll now stands at 2,496.

In total, 20,889 people have tested positive for coronavirus north of the border, up by 101 from 20,788 the day before.

At the briefing, Prof Leitch was asked about Covid transmission in schools.

The national clinical director said it was difficult to be certain where positive cases among teachers and pupils had come from. Transmission in schools was to be expected, he added, but the Test and Protect system aimed to stop chains of transmission.

“It may be that a few kids or a few teachers or maybe a class at a time will have to be isolated,” he said.

“It is not impossible that a school will have to close. We hope that it will be kept to an absolute minimum.”

Ms Sturgeon said it was not yet known whether the onset of winter would lead to a more pronounced spike in cases or whether the current ebbs and flows would be maintained.

But Prof Leitch warned that the spread of the virus worldwide was speeding up.

“Let’s remember, the global pandemic is accelerating. It is getting bigger,” he said.

“Every weekend the WHO (World Health Organisation) say we have broken a new record for the number of infections and the number of deaths. This is not something to be trifled with.”

He said Scotland, like the rest of Europe, had done well as a result of the measures taken during lockdown.

“Now the treatment is a bit more like whack-a-mole, to try to find those outbreaks and deal with them. But the only things we have are human behaviour and Test and Protect.

“That’s all we have got until science or the virus get us out the other end of this,” he added.