The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
FM defends care homes track record in pandemic
Sturgeon says care taken to put ‘guidance in place’ that was considered appropriate
Nicola Sturgeon has defended her government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in care homes.
Speaking during the Scottish Government’s daily Covid-19 briefing yesterday, she said while scrutiny of the response to the pandemic is “really essential”, care was taken to put guidance in place.
The Sunday Post reported at least 37 people were moved from hospital to a care home after a positive test for the virus.
The first minister announced during the briefing that there has been no deaths related to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, while the number of positive cases has risen by 26.
A total of 2,491 patients have died in Scotland with the virus, and 19,358 have tested positive.
The last confirmed death of an infected person in the country was recorded on July 15.
Addressing the care home reports, Ms Sturgeon said: “I want to be clear that while there will undoubtedly be lessons to learn when a new virus is encountered – and we take that very seriously – care was taken to put guidance in place that was considered to be appropriate at every stage.”
She said this included, from midmarch, guidance requiring clinical screening of patients being transferred from hospitals to care homes “to guard against inappropriate transfer”.
The guidance also advised social isolation within care homes, she said.
The first minister reiterated her commitment to a public inquiry, which she said will be held “in due course”.
She said scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s approach “will, and must, include consideration of whether, based on what we knew at each stage, the guidance in place at each stage was both appropriate and properly implemented”.
Ms Sturgeon also addressed a number of clusters across Scotland. She said since the beginning of the outbreak in Aberdeen, 207 cases have been confirmed in that cluster, with 1,050 contacts identified. A further cluster has been discovered at a food processing facility in Coupar Angus (see page 2).
Health officials investigating a number of clusters in the central belt confirmed yesterday 14 cases in north-east Glasgow and eight in North Lanarkshire have been linked to house parties. They said that evidence of social gatherings with no social distancing was a factor in their investigation.
Pupils are self-isolating in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire areas. An additional Covid19 case was confirmed in a pupil at a secondary school in Baillieston, Glasgow.