A total of 117 pupils in Scotland have tested positive for Covid-19 since schools started reopening on 11 August, education secretary John Swinney said this afternoon.
He revealed that 77 pupils aged 12-17 and 40 children aged 5-11 had tested positive.
Some 11,208 pupils aged 12-17 tested negative, meaning the proportion who were positive was 0.7 per cent. The number of pupils aged 5-11 who tested negative was 28,664, meaning 0.1 per cent were positive.
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Mr Swinney provided the figures in the Scottish Parliament, in response to a question from Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Jamie Green.
He said that “every effort is made to understand where infection has come from” in schools.
Mr Swinney, who is also deputy first minister, added: “I would say that on the evidence that I have seen, most of the contraction of the virus is coming within household settings, but not in every case. But I would say that’s the predominant explanation is in household situations, and that may also be informed by international travel, which is resulting in quite a number of the cases with which we are wrestling”.
Meanwhile, Scottish Liberal Democrats education spokesperson Beatrice Wishart asked if the government’s promise to provide nursery and school staff with testing on demand had been delivered and was now in place in all local authorities.
Mr Swinney said: “The testing route is available in all local authority areas. I don’t have the data on how many staff have access to that particular route and but if we can disaggregate the data to answer the question, I will write to Beatrice Wishart with the detail.”
In total, Scotland has recorded 154 new cases of Covid-19 in the most recent 24-hour period, which equates to 1.2 per cent of newly tested people. That follows 160 new cases recorded yesterday, which was the highest daily total since 16 May.
