No ban on gatherings until a week after hotel outbreak

NICOLA Sturgeon failed to impose a ban on mass gatherings until a week after the country had its first coronavirus outbreak.

Officials confirmed ministers were informed by March 9 that 25 people had been diagnosed with Covid-19 after attending a conference held by Nike in Edinburgh. Eight of the ten Scots who attended were infected.

But the First Minister did not announce a ban on mass gatherings until March 12, and it came into force four days later.

The outbreak following the Nike event in February was revealed in a BBC programme this week.

Edinburgh Labour MP Ian Murray said: ‘If 80 per cent of the Scots who attended the conference contracted coronavirus, that should have been an early sign of how easily it can spread.

‘It raises serious questions about the decision to not only hide this information from the public, but to allow mass gatherings to still go ahead in Edinburgh and across Scotland.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said all infections linked to the event were included in daily figures.