Mobile testing unit in the region as corona cases soar

Additional resources are being made available to NHS Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire Council in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus in the region.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed last week that a mobile testing unit would be coming to Hamilton following a question from Central Scotland MSP Monica Lennon during a virtual session of the Scottish Parliament.

South Lanarkshire has seen some of the highest rates of new Covid-19 cases in Scotland in recent weeks with some neighbourhoods in the Hamilton area seeing cases rising five times faster than the national average.

Questioning the First Minister, Ms Lennon said:“South Lanarkshire is currently the council area with the highest positivity rate, where the Hamilton area is accounting for almost half of all Covid-19 cases.

“What is the Scottish Government’s understanding of what factors are at play in Hamilton, Larkhall and the South Lanarkshire area?

“Can I ask the First Minister what other resources will be made available to NHS Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire Council in the days and weeks ahead?”

The First Minister said:“There are resources that we are seeking to make available and we’ll set those out in detail.

“Testing and the provision of local access to testing through mobile testing units and increasingly the new walk-in centres that are being established is important.

“Through innovation technologically, we’re increasingly starting to trial and hopefully then use point of care testing technology which again will allow much greater ease of access.

“We know that certain areas have particularly high levels of infection and that is guiding the decisions we are taking.

“I would say the information is available through the new Public Health Scotland resource where anybody can go and see the current infection level in their own neighbourhood.

“It’s very localised information and our incident management teams that look at the situations locally and nationally will use the data to guide the decisions we are taking.”

Labour’s shadow health spokesperson, Ms Lennon, welcomed the mobile test centre coming to Hamilton but asked if the government were considering extending school holidays in October like what has happened in Northern Ireland to help reduce the spread of the virus.

Ms Sturgeon added:“Much of what we are doing right now and one of the reasons why we took the decisions to impose household and hospitality restrictions at a relatively early stage was that we want to keep schools open.

“It is really important for the wellbeing and education of young people that we do so.

“We can’t rule anything out in the face of what we are dealing with right now, but a key objective is not to have schools close beyond the normal holiday periods.

“That is why we are asking others to sacrifice going to the pub for a pint or going out for a meal or coming together in each other’s houses .

“Its these sacrifices that are necessary to get the virus under control but will then, we hope, enable children to go to school as normal.”