The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Shock and disgust at virus scammers
● Another 209 deaths brings UK total to 1,228. ● Volunteer body set up by the Scottish Government. ● Dundee scientists in front line of virus battle. ● Wedding industry facing catastrophic losses. Public warned as fraudsters target fearful members of
Fraudsters are exploiting people’s fears about the coronavirus crisis by targeting them with sick scam texts and emails.
As the nationwide lockdown enters its second week, the public are being warned to be on their guard against messages purporting to be from official bodies such as the government and tax office, requesting they pay fines for leaving their homes or claim tax rebates.
Katherine Hart, Fife-based spokeswoman for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, said experts were “appalled and infuriated” that criminals were looking to capitalise on the pandemic as the numbers of deaths and confirmed cases continued to rise.
A further coronavirus patient in Scotland has died, bringing the total number of deaths to 41, the Scottish Government has announced.
In total, 1,384 people in Scotland have tested positive for the virus, up 139 from 1,245 on Saturday.
Daily figures published at 2pm showed 13,889 Scottish tests have been conducted, with 12,505 confirmed as negative.
Greater Glasgow and Clyde has the most cases with 401, followed by Lothian with 188 and Lanarkshire with 184.
Scotland’s chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood said on Friday that the true figure for infections could be more than 65,000.
Speaking at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also revealed that 95 people in Scotland are in care with Covid-19 or symptoms of the virus and the number of cases is “growing quite rapidly”.
Ms Sturgeon also announced a new volunteer programme for those who wish to help in the fight against Covid-19.
The programme will allow people to register their interest on ReadyScotland.org.
Returning health and social care workers will be directed to existing programmes while those who wish to volunteer more generally can sign up to become a Community Reserve Volunteer.
The programme will be co-ordinated by the Red Cross and a wider campaign will launch on TV and radio from Monday.
Addressing concerns about a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers, Ms Sturgeon said 34 million items have been delivered to hospitals over the last four to six weeks and that health boards now have a “single point of contact for managing PPE distribution”.
Eight weeks’ worth of PPE will be delivered to GP surgeries this week, she added, and additional staff will be employed to meet the demand in the social care sector for the items.
Ms Sturgeon also confirmed that the armed forces are considering establishing a new hospital facility at the Exhibition Centre in Glasgow.
Chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood said during the briefing that “more stringent measures” may need to be put in place if the current lockdown does not reduce the impact of coronavirus.
She said when the “suppression measures” were started just over one week ago “the numbers of cases in Scotland was doubling every three to four days”.
She added: “Within two-to-three weeks of the measures being put in place we should, if the measures are working, be able to see a reduction in that doubling time so that the numbers of cases are not increasing as quickly.”
But she said that if things haven’t improved after two to three weeks, “more stringent measures would need to be put in place”.
Scotland is currently conducting around 800 tests for Covid-19 per day but the plan is to increase capacity to around 3,000 a day, with the establishment of a new lab in Glasgow.