Covid cases may spike at the end of the month, health chief suggests
Covid cases are expected to spike at the end of the month as a reaction to the COP26 summit, according to Scottish Government modelling.
Speaking at a press conference in Glasgow ahead of the summit, which will see more than 25,000 delegates descend on Scotland’s biggest city over the next two weeks from across the world, public health chief Jason Leitch said modelling forecast any rise as a result of the event would not be immediate.
He said: “For the next two or three weeks, the modelling shows stability and maybe even a fall. It doesn’t show an instant reaction to COP. The nature of the infectious disease is that any rise would come probably after COP. As we get further out, that modelling becomes less and less reliable, and therefore isn’t much use to us to know what to do now.”
Prof Leitch said people living in the Central Belt, where the vast majority of COP26 delegates are staying, should continue to follow government advice to avoid Covid.
He said: “Covid hasn’t gone away. COP has arrived and
Covid is still here. So the guidance and the rules around Covid behaviours, around your twice-weekly testing or in going for your vaccination, all of those things things still apply. The vaccination centres will still be open, people will still be able to get their tests.
“I would ask them to be even more careful during this period, particularly as an example to our international visitors, because we don’t want to export virus, just like we don’t want to import virus.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I want to offer an assurance, again, that we are doing everything possible to mitigate these risks as far as is possible.”
Ms Sturgeon said the United Nations had taken steps to ensure as many delegates as possible were fully vaccinated.