Virus surges as workers ignore rule to stay home
WORKERS have been warned to stay at home due to an ‘uncontrolled, sustained community transmission’ of coronavirus in Moray.
Health bosses blame the surge in cases and the threat of more deaths on a flood of staff returning to workplaces against government advice.
NHS Grampian chiefs issued a plea for people to continue to work from home if they could.
An incident management team has now been launched in an effort to bring the number of virus cases back under control.
The Moray region now has 81.4 cases per 100,000, East Dunbartonshire has the second highest at 41.4, and Aberdeenshire and Highland are both at 11.
The cluster comes as data shows more people are returning to work.
Deputy director of public health at NHS Grampian Chris Littlejohn said: ‘In Moray we are now seeing uncontrolled, sustained community transmission, current restrictions not are containing it, and the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
‘We are seeing hospitalisations from this, including in the under 50s. We will see deaths, if the situation is not brought under control.’
He added: ‘Analytics have shown us many people in the region have returned to their workplaces, rather than working from home.
‘It remains the advice that people should work from home where possible and we really need people to do that where they can.’
Extra testing facilities are being brought in and businesses are being encouraged to get workers tested.
Since April 10, there have been 210 cases in Moray, with more than half of those in the past eight days. As a result NHS Grampian is ‘heavily considering’ carrying out doorstep testing in Elgin, the epicentre of the outbreak, to try to locate positive cases and stop transmission.
A mobile testing unit is to operate from Elgin Academy – which has seen a large number of cases among its pupils – from today. It will provide PCR testing for staff and pupils on school days and be open to the public during the weekend.
The school has been associated with 48 cases since April 14, while more than a quarter of the school’s 1,000 pupils have had to self-isolate.
Mobile testing units are also set to visit towns and villages around the region in the coming days.
Mr Littlejohn said while the outbreak is concentrated in Elgin, case numbers are also on the rise in Lossiemouth, Buckie and Keith.
Moray Council chief executive Roddy Burns said: ‘We are all responsible for our choices – follow the rules, don’t gather in large groups and don’t go into people’s home to socialise. We do not want Moray to get left behind.’
Jillian Evans, the head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian, said the board expects more cases.
She told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme: ‘When you see a big drop in infection rates it’s usually the result of a lockdown.
‘We are not talking about doing that, of course not, but are thinking very carefully about what this means for easing restrictions further.
‘It would seem wrong to consider moving down a level while you’ve got infection rates that continue to rise.’
‘We are all responsible’