Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-33374

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how any reductions to NHS boards’ budgets for programmes or measures that aim to reduce the harms associated with drug use will impact on its ambition to eliminate hepatitis C by 2024.

Question reference: S5W-33145

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital patient deaths from COVID-19 have been recorded in each month since March 2020, also broken down by how many of these people had at least one other underlying health condition.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) publish weekly statistics on the number of deaths where COVID-19 was written on the death certificate, either as a suspected or probable involvement in the death. The publication also includes a breakdown of these deaths by location of death. The latest publication was released on 18th November and a link is provided here:

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/
vital-events/general-publications/weekly-and-monthly-data-on-births-and-deaths
/deaths-involving-coronavirus-covid-19-in-scotland

Question reference: S5W-33204

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 26 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32489 by Joe FitzPatrick on 9 November 2020, how many (a) people aged 65 and over, (b) people who have an eligible health condition, (c) pregnant women and (d) healthcare workers are eligible for the flu vaccination, also broken down by how many have received the vaccination to date.

The expanded flu vaccination programme began on 1 October. The eligible cohorts for the flu vaccination and the working planning assumptions are detailed in the table below.

Scottish Government officials are working closely with Health Boards to monitor vaccine uptake amongst eligible cohorts. A weekly report on seasonal influenza activity in Scotland is published on the Public Health Scotland website: https://publichealthscotland.scot/downloads/weekly-national-seasonal-respiratory-report-18-november-2020/

Category	Eligible Cohort	Working Planning Assumptions		vaccinated
Category	Eligible Cohort	number	%	number	%
65 years and over	1064075	798056	75%	data collection started
At Risk	782711	587033	75%
Carers	47463	35597	75%
Pregnant without risk	34871	26153	75%
pre-school	141157	91752	65%
Primary School	404763	303572	75%
Healthcare Worker	152021	91213	60%
Social care Worker (new)	133150	79890	60%
55 to 64 year olds (new)	674788	438612	65%
Total	3434999	2451879

This data is provided by Public Health Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-32492

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, based on scientific projections, how much lower it expects the COVID-19 R number will be by the end of October 2020 following the so-called circuit-breaker, and how this compares with the projected number if no further interventions were made.

The aim of the restrictions that are running from 9 October to 2 November are to suppress the growth in total infections. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on R number is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on the R number are published on the Scottish Government website each week ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/) .

Modelling data published on 7 October predicted infections would reach the March peak by the end of October, R would be significantly above one and the doubling time would be nine days. The reality at the end of October as a result of the Scottish population’s compliance to restrictions was daily infections between 7,100 and 18,400, R at 1.0 – 1.3 and a doubling time of 17-52 days.

Question reference: S5W-32491

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, based on scientific projections, how many fewer daily COVID-19 infections it expects to see by the end of October 2020 following the so-called circuit-breaker, and how this compares with the projected number if no further interventions were made.

The aim of the restrictions that are running from 9 October to 2 November are to suppress the growth in total infections. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on daily Covid-19 infections is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on estimated daily infections are published on the Scottish Government website each week.

Modelling data published on 7 October predicted infections would reach the March peak by the end of October, R would be significantly above one and the doubling time would be nine days. The reality at the end of October as a result of the Scottish population’s compliance to restrictions was daily infections between 7,100 and 18,400, R at 1.0 – 1.3 and a doubling time of 17-52 days.

Question reference: S5W-32490

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, based on scientific projections, how many fewer hospital admissions it expects to see by the end of October 2020 following the so-called circuit-breaker, and how this compares with the projected number if no further interventions were made.

The aim of the restrictions running from 9 October to 2 November are to suppress the growth in total infections. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on hospital admissions is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on hospital admissions are published on the Scottish Government website each day. Modelling data published on 7 October predicted infections would reach the March peak by the end of October, R would be significantly above one and the doubling time would be nine days. The reality at the end of October as a result of the Scottish population’s compliance to restrictions was daily infections between 7,100 and 18,400, R at 1.0 – 1.3 and a doubling time of 17-52 days.

Question reference: S5W-32493

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, based on scientific projections, what changes it expects to see to the doubling time rate of the COVID-19 virus by the end of October 2020 following the so-called circuit-breaker, and how this compares with the projected rate if no further interventions were made.

The aim of the restrictions that are running from 9 October to 2 November are to suppress the growth in total infections. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on doubling time is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on doubling time are published on the Scottish Government website each week ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/ ).

Modelling data published on 7 October predicted infections would reach the March peak by the end of October, R would be significantly above one and the doubling time would be nine days. The reality at the end of October as a result of the Scottish population’s compliance to restrictions was daily infections between 7,100 and 18,400, R at 1.0 – 1.3 and a doubling time of 17-52 days.

Question reference: S5T-02529

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the announcement that Scotland will host one of the two proposed COVID-19 "mega labs".

Question reference: S5W-32663

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 12 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to ensuring that people in the highest priority groups all receive their flu vaccinations by the end of November 2020.

Health Boards are prioritising the vaccination of those at the greatest clinical risk as early as possible in flu season. The flu vaccination programme officially began on 1 October.

Those at the greatest clinical risk have been eligible to get the flu vaccination since the start of October and they will remain eligible throughout flu season. Health Boards plan to have vaccinated the majority of people in Phase 1 groups by the end of November, but it will be possible to receive the vaccine as late as the end of March 2021, to ensure that nobody who is at increased clinical risk is excluded because they were unable to attend an earlier appointment.

Question reference: S5W-32658

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 12 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) flu vaccines NHS Scotland has procured for this winter and (b) people are eligible for a vaccination, and what uptake of vaccines it estimated when procuring.

Chamber and committees