First minister Nicola Sturgeon said there is no room for complacency after a slight increase in coronavirus cases following the return of pupils to school buildings in Scotland.
Speaking during the Scottish government’s daily briefing this afternoon, she said she could not rule out the possibility that a rise in cases over the past week was linked to the return of schooling.
She said: “It is important to note that over the past seven days we have actually seen a slight increase in cases and we will be monitoring that carefully and it does provide us with a reminder that there is still no room for complacency and that our room for manoeuvre is limited.”
Return of pupils: The preparation behind the scenes
Also happening today: Teachers hit out at ‘dialogue’ with Swinney event date
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Earlier today: Sarwar outlines ‘education comeback’ plan for pupils
Children in P1-P3 returned to Scotland’s school buildings full time on 22 February, while some secondary students of practical subjects went back for limited periods in school.
This week they are being joined by P4-P7s, with secondary school students returning for at least a small portion of the week.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Can we rule out a link between schools partially reopening and a bit of an uptick in cases? No, I don’t think we can.
“And that will not be because particularly of transmission within schools but we know that when schools open there is just a little bit more movement generally, as parents take children to school, for example.”
Also speaking during the briefing, chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith said the rise in cases was “not as great as I had wondered that we might see” and that he was “not overly concerned”.
He said: “We knew that as schools went back [there was] always going to be the possibility that, as people could go about their lives more, there would be more contact of one sort or another and that could lead to more transmission, and I think that is exactly what we are seeing being played through in the figures just now.”
Self isolation for 10 days remains in place for pupils who are a close contact of someone who tests positive for coronavirus.@NicolaSturgeon tells BBC @LucyJWhyte that this remains an important part of overall protection against Covid.
Live updates ➡https://t.co/ASPxj2hm3X pic.twitter.com/4mkxmOBbsy
- BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) March 15, 2021
Earlier today, education secretary and deputy first minister John Swinney said there was “precisely no connection” between the 2 March announcement of a return to schools and the first minister’s evidence to the Salmond Inquiry a day later.
On BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Andrea Bradley, EIS teaching union assistant secretary, said the government had been looking for a “good-news story that week”.
While many pupils were already due back on 15 March, it was only on 2 March that it was announced that S1-3s would be back for some of the week.
Today Mr Swinney rejected that claim: “There is precisely no connection between those two events,” he told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland.
“The government previously indicated that we would provide an update on the return to schooling on that particular Tuesday, that is precisely what we did, and we addressed the concerns about the wellbeing of children and young people in driving the decisions that we arrived at.”
Coronavirus: ‘Reducing community prevalence’
Mr Swinney said there would be outbreaks within schools, but claimed this would be driven by the prevalence of the virus in the community.
He said: “There will be examples where the virus will spread and the biggest threat to the ability to sustain education at a local level is community transmission of the virus, which is why we’re putting such an emphasis on reducing community prevalence of the virus, and we’ve made enormous strides in that.”
He added: “The evidence that we have is that schools are not significant transmitters of the virus, but obviously community transmission can lead to it reaching schools.”
Mr Swinney said emphasis would continue to be on controlling the prevalence of the virus across the country, while mitigations such as regular testing, social distancing and face coverings should be used within schools.
“We’ve got to make sure this is the last lockdown.”@ScottishLabour leader @AnasSarwar says the return to school should be kept under review, with a focus on ventilation, social distancing and more testing.
Live updates ➡https://t.co/ASPxj2hm3X pic.twitter.com/Eso1pbvX2l
- BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) March 15, 2021
The latest coronavirus figures show 456 positive coronavirus tests were recorded in the previous 24 hours. No new deaths were recorded, meaning the death toll under this measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - remains at 7,510.
Ms Sturgeon will set out further details of the Scottish government’s planned exit from Covid-19 restrictions to MSPs tomorrow, at about 2.15pm.
She said: “I will seek to set out some details of what changes we hope to make in early April…then what further easing we might then expect to see in late April, and then mid-May and in much less detail beyond that.
“We can’t provide certainty on everything at this stage.”
Some key measures she highlighted include the proposed end of the stay-at-home rule; the reopening of shopping; outdoor and indoor hospitality rules; and further relaxation in the rules around meeting other households.
“We could have made a much more realistic proposal.” @scotlibdems leader @willie_rennie says the return to school could have been based on evidence from primary schools, and schools in Europe.
Live updates ➡https://t.co/ASPxj2hm3X pic.twitter.com/Uf5PW5BpqT
- BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) March 15, 2021
While the first minister reiterated that we “can’t afford to simply throw caution to the wind”, tomorrow’s statement will show “hope we now have for the future”.
The first minister also addressed concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine after a number of countries, including the Netherlands and Republic of Ireland, paused their use of the jab.
She told the briefing that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency had “confirmed to us that there is no current evidence of an increase in blood clots” caused by the jab.
She added that there is “significant and growing evidence of the benefits of vaccination [in] reducing death, illness and, we hope, now reducing transmission as well”.
