Scottish women’s rugby star among new virus cases
Seven other players and staff self-isolate as game is cancelled
A member of the Scotland women’s rugby team has tested positive for coronavirus as the number of new cases across the country spikes.
It emerged last night the player has been transferred to a medical facility but is otherwise well.
The Women’s Six Nations against France scheduled for Saturday night has been called off.
Another seven Scotland
players and members of the management team are self isolating. The decision was taken by Six Nations in consultation with Scottish Rugby, the French Rugby Federation (FFR). The Scottish Government has been briefed.
Five new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Scotland yesterday, the biggest daily spike in confirmed infections to date.
The Scotland women’s team returned from northern Italy on 23 February as their Italy v Scotland Six Nations match was postponed.
Dr James Robson, Scottish Rugby’s chief medical officer said, “We are pleased that our player is doing well and that all the correct medical procedures have been followed and continue to be followed.
“We are working with the Scottish Government in continuing to observe and follow NHS advice.”
Scotland’s new Covid-19 cases - two in Fife, and one each in the Lothian, Forth Valley and
Grampian health board areas - brings the total number to 11, up from six on Thursday.
The Scottish Government said a total of 1,525 tests have been carried out so far, with 1,514 coming back negative.
The number of cases across the UK - including the Scottish figures - climbed to 163, up from 115 on Thursday. Some 20,338 people have been tested to date. The total includes 147 cases in England, three in Northern Ireland and two in Wales.
A man in his early 80s became the second person in the UK to die after testing positive for coronavirus. Milton Keynes Hospital said the man, who had underlying health conditions, tested positive for the virus and died shortly after on Thursday.
The jump in confirmed cases in Scotland follows the trend which has seen the rate of infection increase since the first case in the country was confirmed in Tayside on Sunday. Two cases were diagnosed in Ayrshire and Grampian by Wednesday, with a further three cases confirmed in the Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Grampian health board areas on Thursday.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Thursday that the number of people with Covid-19 in Scotland is likely to rise “very rapidly.”
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, she said: “We may not be able to contain the virus indefinitely, but every day we manage that and every week that we manage that, taking a future peak out of the winter period and into spring and summer, then we help to reduce the impact.”
Scotland’s chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood has said the country is still in the containment phase.
She reiterated that authorities would soon gradually move from a so-called containment phase to one aimed at delaying the impact of the virus.
Comparing the process to a dimmerswitch,sheexplained: “Where we are on the dial at the moment the switch is still in containment, very much in containment, and gradually that dial will move around to the delay phase.”
Dr Calderwood said people should continue to follow basis hygiene routines, including washing their hands for 20 seconds at a time, and again emphasised that major events would not necessarily lead to the spread of the virus.
She said: “The emerging scientific advice is that largescale gatherings, particularly those in the open air probably don’t make a big impact on the transmission of the virus in the community.
“We have the rugby at Murrayfield, Scotland v France, going ahead this weekend and I am absolutely sure that that is the right thing to do.”
However, with numerous events and large scale gatherings being cancelled or downscaledaroundtheworld,organisers of the Edinburgh Internationalharpfestivalconfirmed that this year’s event - due to run between 3 and 8 April would not go ahead.
They said it was with “deep regret” that the event was cancelled by the host venue, Merchiston Castle School, amid concerns about the virus.
Elsewhere, the National Trust for Scotland, which runs some of the country’s most popular visitor attractions, including Culzean Castle and Culloden, said all its properties remained open, but that it was prepared to take quick “action” if necessary.
Astatementsaid:“thesafety and wellbeing of our visitors is, as always, paramount. At this stage, we stress that the risk to individual members of the public still remains low. Should the situation change, we’ll not hesitate to take swift action.
At our properties and workplaces we’re providing public health notices relating to good hand, respiratory and personal hygiene.”
“The emerging scientific advice is that large-scale gatherings, particularly those in the open air probably don’t make a big impact”
CATHERINE CALDERWOOD
As the number of Covid-19 coronavirus cases neared 100,000 worldwide, the World Health Organisation urged all nations to give the “highest priority” to efforts to contain the disease, while in the US, health officials warned of its “pandemic potential”.
If it was not already, the seriousness of the situation is now crystal clear.
And, in such circumstances, it is extremely important that we all pull together and act sensibly. Each and every one of us needs to make ourselves aware of the official advice and to follow it. We have a duty to do this.
No politician should attempt to score petty party political points, government ministers and officials must be honest and straight with the public, and no one should become so fearful that they work themselves up into a state of panic.
We must instead be calm, resolute and kind.
However, there have been some alarming reports of precisely the wrong kind of reaction to what is now a significant crisis, such as the panic-buying of various goods, including staple foods and toilet paper, and utterly shocking accounts of sanitising gel being stolen from a hospital in Northampton.
Such behaviour needs to stop or it risks making our situation worse. If it does not stop, politicians must take whatever action is required to make it stop.
Nicola Sturgeon stressed that Scotland was still in the first phase of dealing with the virus – containment – but “we may not be able to contain the virus indefinitely”.
However, she added that “every day we manage that and every week that we manage that, taking a future peak out of the winter period and into spring and summer, then we help to reduce the impact”.
This is the task that she, as First Minister, the NHS and government officials are working hard to achieve, working alongside their UK colleagues. If we the public give them other problems to solve, we will damage their ability to fight the virus. So, stop panic-buying and stop pretending you have a PHD in infectious diseases and know more than the experts.
In the event that the disease continues to spread, the authorities will move to the “delay” phase, in which schools may be closed, events involving large crowds are cancelled, and people are encouraged to work from home if possible.
If this happens, we should comply with requests made by officials. This is our duty and we must do it. And those who do not should be ashamed of themselves.