Creation of volunteer force to help NHS welcomed by rival parties
place in NHS Scotland. “But if you want to volunteer more generally to help the NHS or the wider response effort, the site will direct you to becoming a community reserve volunteer,” she said.
“We are grateful to the Red Cross who will be coordinating community reserve volunteers across the country. The site will also provide information about volunteering with existing organisations through Volunteer Scotland.
“This will enable people to contribute in a way that makes a real difference within their local community and help us help each other get through this together.”
The announcement was welcomed by Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs, who last week had urged the Scottish Government to introduce such a scheme.
He said: “It’s a welcome step forward. We know already across Scotland so many Scots volunteer to help in their communities but, as we see over 200,000 Scots asked to isolate long term, we need to see a far greater community effort to support them in the delivery of groceries and medication but also in the mental health support available. We need a community capacity in place.”
He added: “I think Scotland will respond amazingly to this task – this is a national effort and I hope we will see people sign up to support everyone across Scotland. We need people to volunteer to support the most vulnerable in what will be a really difficult time, but together we can get through this.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard also welcomed the “creation of a volunteer force” but he urged the government to offer more clarity to companies which remain open despite being non-essential. “This is putting lives in danger and is morally reprehensible,” he said.
Scottish Greens MSP Alison Johnstone said that, in the “face of this unprecedented emergency, anything we can do to support those key workers is very welcome”.
However, both she and Mr Leonard raised concerns about PPE for frontline staff, despite assurances from Ms Sturgeon that 34 million pieces had been delivered, and GP surgeries across Scotland would receive eight weeks’ supply of kit by Friday.
Ms Sturgeon said health boards now have a “single point of contact for managing PPE distribution” and more staff will be employed to meet the demand in the social care sector for the items.
It was also confirmed that the Armed Forces and NHS Scotland are considering setting up a hospital at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood said: “The SECC is not a field hospital, it’s not a mobile unit as the Army runs in places like Afghanistan. This would be a new hospital facility within that building.
“Engineers from the Armed Services with clinical specialists from the NHS have been scoping that out. It’s still in the very early stages of planning and several options are being considered.”
She also said “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.”
But she said that, if things have not improved after two to three weeks, “more stringent measures would need to be put in place”.
Asked about testing, she said Scotland is conducting around 800 tests for coronavirus a day but the plan was for about 3,000 a day, with a new laboratory opening in Glasgow.
The month that changed everything: Howa global pandemic unfolded in Scotland
Just four weeks ago, the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Scotland – here is a look back at how the coronavirus crisis has escalated north of the Border since.
On Sunday, 1 March, the Scottish Government announced the first confirmed Covid-19 case in Scotland. The patient, a Tayside resident recently returned from Italy, was treated in isolation at hospital.
News had first emerged of patients being tested for the virus in Scotland more than a month previously, on 23 January, with negative test results being reported the following day.
By 30 January Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr Catherine Calderwood, warned that a positive case of coronavirus was “highly likely” in