Sturgeon defends system for tracking and tracing

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she would not “comment speculatively” on claims an Aberdeen bar had to proactively get in touch with contact tracers after a recent outbreak in the city.

It follows a statement by Soul Bar in Aberdeen, which claimed a person who tested positive and was associated with the cluster at the Hawthorn Bar had visited the outdoor area of their venue for a “short length of time” on Friday.

Paul Clarkson, operations director at PB Devco, who run Soul Bar, said they were not contacted by the Track and Trace team to confirm this but had “proactively contacted” the NHS to tell them of the situation.

When asked about the claim at her daily briefing yesterday Ms Sturgeon said she would not comment “speculatively”, adding she believed the system was “robust”.

She said: “I do believe Test and Protect is robust. It’s a system that is not entirely new, we’ve always had contact tracing in place but it is a system that has scaled up significantly to meet the scale of the challenge Covid-19 presents.

“It will be under pressure in outbreaks and we will require as we go along to make sure we learn any lessons and we increase its effectiveness if we need to do that.”

Ms Sturgeon also paid tribute to tracers who she said were doing “an incredible amount of very difficult work”.

“They will be making judgments based on all of the guidance and the definition on who should be contacted as contacts and, of course, if any businesses have concerns they should raise those concerns,” she added.

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Miles Briggs MSP said the Scottish Government must answer contact tracing questions, following the Aberdeen Covid-19 case cluster.

Mr Briggs said the “unfortunate circumstances” around the Aberdeen cluster may well be replicated in other parts of Scotland.

He added: “It appears that bars and individuals are having to ring round themselves if they feel ill or may have had contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19.

“These are systemic failures.”