First minister announces Scottish Government hit its target for testing as proposals revealed for residential homes

Nicola Sturgeon has announced coronavirus testing in Scotland will be expanded in care homes and to people aged over 65 with symptoms of the disease.

She said testing capacity in Scotland in NHS labs currently stands at 4,350, compared to 350 at the start of the outbreak.

The Scottish Government set a target of 3,500 for capacity in these labs by the end of April.

Combined with the UK Government testing network in Scotland, the daily capacity for tests in the country is now 8,350, Ms Sturgeon said.

By the end of the next week, she said it is hoped this combined capacity will have risen to 10,500 and then to 12,000 by the middle of May.

The first minister said increasing capacity is not about “chasing numbers” and it is important to increase the number of tests carried out.

Expanding the testing regime in Scotland, she announced the Scottish Government will undertake “advanced outbreak investigation” at care homes reporting cases of Covid-19.

The investigation will involve testing of all residents and staff regardless of symptoms.

She said, if a care home is part of a chain where staff move between homes, the testing will be carried out in the linked institutions.

Ms Sturgeon also said there will be sample testing done in homes where no cases have been reported.

The changes, which will be overseen by NHS Louisa Jordan chief executive Jill Young, will be put in place “as swiftly as practicable”.

She added the expansion of testing will need to be “clinically driven”.

She later announced NHS Scotland’s testing capacity exceeded its target for the end of April.

The first minister said capacity in NHS labs at the end of April was 4,350, higher than the Scottish Government’s target of 3,500.

But she revealed 2,537 tests were actually carried out by health boards on Thursday.

UK Government testing at drivethrough centres across Scotland and mobile testing being carried out by the army at 13 pop-up sites, provides additional capacity of 4,000 tests.

The total number of tests carried out across Scotland on Thursday was 4,661, from a possible capacity of 8,350.

Ms Sturgeon said the capacity will increase, with NHS Scotland aiming for 6,500 tests by next Friday and up to 8,000 by the middle of May, making the joint totals 10,500 and 12,000 respectively.

“That is a significant increase in capacity and I pay tribute to all those who have worked so hard to achieve it, both in our NHS Scotland labs and in the UK Government testing network,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“But of course, laboratory capacity is one thing, what matters is the volume of testing we do and the clinical objectives that we set for testing. This can’t simply be about chasing numbers.

“So we’re also working to increase the number of tests that are carried out, but also to extend categories for testing in a way that better equips us to suppress the virus.”

All of Scotland’s 14 health boards have testing facilities, alongside a “lighthouse” laboratory at Glasgow University, which analyses the majority of the tests carried out at the UK Government’s drive-through centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Perth.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said the Scottish Government is “on the back foot”.

He said: “The Scottish Government has failed to act on the advice of the WHO to ‘test, test, test’ quickly enough, and today’s announcement of increased testing capacity is too little, too late, for those who have already lost their lives to the virus.

“The expansion of testing in care homes announced today is welcome but should have been put in place weeks ago, as we knew that workers and residents in care homes would be at greatest risk.”

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said: “The SNP government is still lagging well behind on testing.

“By ensuring care workers in the community have the same access to testing as those in the NHS or in care homes, those numbers would increase,” he added.