There will be no immediate change to the rules on self-isolation in Scotland, the first minister has said.
Nicola Sturgeon told a virtual meeting of the Scottish Parliament this afternoon that the Scottish government was “weighing the risks and benefits” of shortening the isolation period - and also potentially easing the requirement for all household contacts to isolate following a positive case.
However, she said a decision had yet to be reached but was expected in the coming week.
Currently, the self-isolation period in Scotland is 10 days, while in England, the period of self-isolation has been reduced to seven days.
Shortening the self-isolation period would reduce the pressure on schools caused by staff shortages, as well as the amount of learning missed by pupils.
But Ms Sturgeon said: “These are finely balanced judgements and we are considering the current trends of infection carefully. Therefore, I can confirm that we do hope to reach decisions in the next week, with any change taking effect from 5 January, and we will keep Parliament updated.”
Record-high Covid cases
Scotland recorded a record-high 15,849 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, Ms Sturgeon said.
The number of new infections was 4,819 more than the previous high, which was recorded on Boxing Day.
Ms Sturgeon said that the expected wave of Omicron infections was now rapidly developing, as she warned a further steep rise in cases was expected for the days and possibly weeks ahead.
However, responding to questions from MSPs, she said it remained the government’s priority to keep schools open and said the government was planning to give essential workers priority when it came to testing so they had the information they needed to volunteer to return to work early from self-isolation.
Earlier this month, the Scottish government published new guidance for schools to take into account the Omicron variant.
The guidance included the controversial plan to allow school staff - and other critical workers - to apply for exemptions from self-isolation and volunteer to return to work early at times of severe staff shortage.
Ms Sturgeon said that essential workers would now be given priority when it came to testing - given the current surge in cases meant processing capacity was “under pressure” - to ensure they had the results they needed “to qualify for an exemption promptly”.
