Scotland to ramp up testing for coronavirus by the end of month
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Scotland is to ramp up capacity for testing for Covid-19 after the largest rise yet in both the number of confirmed cases and deaths due to the infection.
There have now been 3001 positive cases confirmed in Scotland.
The number of deaths climbed by 46 today, to 172, while 176 people were in intensive care with either confirmed or suspected cases of Covid-19.
After UK health minister Matt Hancock said the government was aiming for 100,000 tests daily for coronavirus by the end of the month, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland would also be increasing testing efforts.
In her daily briefing this afternoon she said that, once the difference in size between Scotland and the rest of the UK is factored in, what will be done will be “slightly more ambitious" than the UK government's initial 25,000 tests a day target.
“We are increasing Scotland's current capacity of at least 1900 tests a day to at least 3500 a day by the end of this month, at the least that is broadly similar, though slightly more ambitious, than the UK pillar one target of 25,000 tests a day," she said.
“This expansion of testing capacity means, amongst other things, that we will be able to test more key workers.
"But every day that passes, however, in addition to increasing capacity within NHS Scotland, we are also working with the UK government and other partners to further increase testing capacity beyond that.
“Yesterday's announcement that a new testing facility is being established by Glasgow University in collaboration with industry partners in the NHS is a very good example of that.
“We in Scotland are currently working to establish exactly how many more tests we think the Glasgow University facility together with other initiatives will deliver, however there is no doubt they will allow us to increase our testing capacity in a way which is proportionate with the rest of the UK.”
Ms Sturgeon also said that fewer people in Scotland required to follow shielding guidance – the most stringent form of lockdown for those identified as most at risk – than had previously been thought.
“We had previously estimated that up to 200,000 were in this group...and we can now say with more confidence that there are 120,000 people across Scotland in one or more of these categories,” she said.
