Sturgeon plans to ramp up testing to 65,000 a day in time for winter
Scotland is to dramatically increase the number of tests for coronavirus being carried to about 65,000 a day, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
This would mark a 62 per cent increase on the 40,000 tests currently done each weekday, to cope with greater demand in autumn and winter.
The Scottish Government has now published a revised “Test and Protect” strategy.
This sets out a “concise and clear explanation” of who ministers are seeking to test, Ms Sturgeon told the daily coronavirus briefing yesterday.
“The strategy sets out our intention to further increase testing capacity in Scotland,” she said.
“That will be increasingly important as we move into the autumn and winter, because in those months, more people will have symptoms, such as a new cold, which may be similar to Covid symptoms.
“Current weekday capacity in Scotland is just over 40,000 tests a day.
“We want to and we’re working to increase that to 65,000 tests a day.
“We are also working to improve the accessibility of tests.”
All contacts of people classed as “Covid-19 index cases” will now be offered testing, regardless of whether they have symptoms.
Such contacts are currently advised to isolate at home for 14 days. They will still be asked to do this, but it is hoped testing will enable further contacts to be identified, helping to contain future outbreaks of the disease.
“Our top priority is to test anyone who has symptoms of Covid – a temperature, a new cough, or a loss of or change in your sense of taste or smell,” Ms Sturgeon said.
“Our second priority now is testing contacts of people with Covid, and using testing in that way to prevent or minimise new outbreaks of the virus.”
Health secretary Jeane Freeman said coronavirus testing was a “key tool which gives us vital information about the what, the who and the where of disease transmission”.