Question reference: S6W-24528
- Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 15 January 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 January 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government to what extent the effects of long COVID are informing its (a) policy on mask mandates and (b) COVID-19 winter booster vaccination roll-out.
Answer
Our guidance to stay well and help others in winter can be found here Respiratory infections including Coronavirus (COVID-19): staying well and protecting others - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . We have no current plans to mandate the wearing of face coverings.
It is due to the success of vaccines in protecting people, driving down cases and the availability of treatments that the guidance on wearing masks was withdrawn.
The Scottish Government follows JCVI for clinical recommendations for vaccination and their current assessment of the evidence does not support the inclusion of long COVID as an eligible at risk health criteria. We intend to continue to be guided by the expert independent advice of the JCVI on this issue.
We continue to monitor studies on COVID-19 vaccination and their relationship to long COVID. There have been a selection of international studies that suggest that receiving COVID-19 vaccination, before infection, can reduce the risk of receiving a diagnosis of long COVID. It is therefore important that we continue to work to improve uptake of our COVID-19 vaccination programmes to potentially prevent more instances of long COVID, but also to continue to protect those at higher risk from severe illness, hospitalisation and death and to protect our NHS.