Chamber and committees

The R number is calculated for Scotland as well as for the other three countries of the United Kingdom, and we publish it on a weekly basis. The R number is not calculated for Scottish regions, because the ranges around the estimates would be very large and that would not help us to understand the differences between areas of Scotland. Instead of doing that, we are looking at other ways of monitoring and forecasting the level of COVID-19 in regions; we use data such as the number of cases and hospitalisations to track the epidemic. The most recent daily statistics for COVID-19 in Scotland are available by health board and can be found in the daily data for Scotland . We will also use the information that starts to come through the test and protect programme. More information about the modelling is available from a series of Scottish Government reports .

From 28 May to 7 June, 681 index cases have been recorded in the Test and Protect system. From these, 741 contacts have been traced.

An 'index case' is a person with a positive test result recorded in the Test and Protect system. New data will be released weekly, and is available from Public Health Scotland's weekly statistical report: https://publichealthscotland.scot/news/initial-contact-tracing-figures-for-scotland/ .

A further expansion of testing for care home residents and workers was announced on 1 May, which again focused on social care workers and care home residents. This includes undertaking enhanced outbreak investigation in all care homes where there are cases; comprehensive surveillance testing in care homes where there are no cases; and, testing across linked or group care homes, where staff may still be moving between homes following an outbreak in one. That same day, the NHS Scotland Chief Performance Officer wrote to all health boards, requesting that they start to implement these policies from 4 May.

In a further measure to protect residents and staff, it was announced on 18 May, that all staff in care homes will be routinely offered testing regardless of whether they are symptomatic. Based on the advice from the Chief Medical Officer, this testing will be routinely carried out every 7 days, regardless of whether there has been a confirmed Covid-19 case in the care home or not. This is in addition to the current measures operating across care homes in Scotland.

Any decision to purchase tests for a large-scale roll-out of antibody testing in Scotland will be led by clinical advice.

Antibody testing has been underway since 6 May in Scotland to support disease surveillance and we are in the process of validating a number of antibody tests to identify which ones carry the right level of efficacy and those which are identified as meeting the required quality standards will be prioritised for purchase.

As new and more reliable tests become validated, we are drawing on clinical and scientific advice to develop plans on how they will be best deployed. However, there are still significant uncertainties about what the presence of antibodies means in terms of a person’s immunity, which means that there are significant limitations in the usefulness of these tests at the current time.

These tests can have a crucial part to play in our response to COVID-19, and we will continue to listen to advice on the emerging scientific evidence on immunity.

NHS labs are operating in all 14 health board areas and additional capacity is provided by the University of Edinburgh, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, the University of Aberdeen and, as part of the UK Expanded Testing programme, the Glasgow Lighthouse Lab. Labs at Moredun and Scotland’s Rural College are expected to go live by the end of June. National Services Scotland are engaging with other Scottish University labs and their respective health boards.

National Services Scotland are continually assessing offers of laboratory space from various sectors in Scotland. This requires ensuring that testing is done in a way that is safe and meets high quality standards for confidence in the results and complies with due diligence. National Services Scotland are working with Enterprise Scotland to engage with private laboratories that have offered assistance.

The development of a new vaccine for COVID-19 is an urgent international challenge. The Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office has regular contact with equivalents in the other UK health departments as part of UK wide coordination of COVID-19-related research, and has been updated as part of this contact on the establishment of a Vaccines Taskforce to support UK efforts to rapidly develop a coronavirus vaccine. The first such trial opened in Scotland in late May with sites in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The CSO funded NHS research infrastructure is available to support vaccine studies as and when they are at the appropriate stage of development.

The Oxford led COV-002 vaccine trial “A phase 2/3 study to determine the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of the candidate Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19” is currently recruiting in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Reported recruitment as of this morning is 629 (324 Edinburgh and 305 Glasgow).

CSO are in active discussions with NIHR at a UK level regarding a further number of potential studies which may be placed in the UK.

The next phase of our testing strategy, Test and Protect, is now live. This involves tracing the close contacts of those who test positive for Covid-19. These close contacts will be asked to self-isolate for 14 days and the Scottish Government will ensure the necessary support is provided to those self-isolating.

Contact tracing will start with the highest priority people already being tested such as hospital patients and health and social care workers. Coverage will be quickly expanded as we continue to increase testing and tracing capacity.

It is important to note that Test and Protect is not a silver bullet. We must continue to view testing alongside other crucial public health measures such as physical distancing, and good respiratory and hand hygiene.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28355 on 25 June 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

This information is not held centrally. It may be available on request from local authorities.

In Scotland, testing is carried out both by NHS Scotland and as part of the UK Government’s drive-through and mobile testing facilities.

Through NHS laboratories, our expectation is that test results should normally be communicated back within 24 hours, though some may take up to 48 hours.

Currently, the average total turnaround time in local health board is just over 19 hours. Where tests are sent to another health board for processing, the total turnaround time is just over 44 hours. We are continuing to work with NHS National Services Scotland to secure reliable data on turnaround times to provide a baseline to report against on a weekly basis.

For testing carried out by the UK Government, the vast majority of test results are sent automatically within 48 hours, or 72 hours for home tests. As at 10 June, turnaround times for tests sent to the Lighthouse labs was 99.4% in 48 hours.

Work continues across all labs to reduce the turn around time for PCR test to as low as possible.