NICOLA Sturgeon has insisted people in care homes are not being treated as “second class citizens”, as it emerged less than five per cent of staff have been tested for coronavirus.

The First Minister also rejected demands to test potential new residents for Covid-19.

She said she did not want to undermine current infection control procedures with tests that could miss pre-symptomatic sufferers and give “false assurance”.

It followed other party leaders at Holyrood pushing Ms Sturgeon on care home safety after official figures showed a quarter of Covid-19 deaths have occurred there. 

In the weekly online version of First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw said care homes had been “an obvious risk” since the start of the outbreak.

He said it was clear care homes felt they were being treated like “second class citizens”, and asked why the government wasn’t offering more concrete action, not just warm words.

Ms Sturgeon said: “Concrete action is being taken and will continue to be taken.

“I want to be very clear - there are no second class citizens in the fight against this virus.

“Every life matters, regardless of age, background or where somebody lives, at their home, at a care home or whether they’re in a hospital.

“There has been clear guidance in placer since the start of this crisis to care home providers about infection prevention and control.

“We’ll continue to support care homes through the provision of PPE, the equipment that staff need to protect themselves.”

Mr Carlaw said it “may have been a mistake” to limit testing to three residents per home, and he understood that all symptomatic residents would now be tested in future.

He asked how many tests Ms Sturgeon expected to happen in care homes and if every new resident entering a care home, “a potential unseen carrier of the virus”, would be tested before being placed in care home which might have had no experience of it before.

The First Minister said the Scottish Government was “on track” to reach its target of 3500 tests per day by the end of the month, and intended to go beyond that in May.

She said testing care homes residents did not change the clinical management of the disease, but did offer comfort to residents’ relatives.

She said: “My advisters tell me whether it’s one resident, five residents or all residents who have been tested, once it is established the virus is in a care home, it is infection prevention and control measures that are important.

“What we have announced [on testing symptomatic residents] is rightly about building confidence and assurance of relatives who are worried and want more certainty about the condition of their relatives in care homes, and building that public assurance.

“In terms of new residents going into care homes, I think it’s important that testing is used appropriately but that we don’t run the risk of it giving false assurance.

“Testing is only reliable when somebody is showing symptoms. So if somebody is tested before they’re showing symptoms and tests negative it doesn’t tell us for sure that they’re not in the incubation period, and won’t develop the symptoms of the virus in the days ahead.” 

She said ending communal meals and observing isolation in homes were more important.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said people were angry at the lack of tests in are homes and asked how many had been carried out.

Ms Sturgeon said it was just under a fifth of the 12,300 carried out on health and care workers and their families, meaning less than 2500. 

She said: “ Obviously, we want to get that percentage up; as we increase testing capacity, that will happen. Those are areas of on-going progress. We are putting in place new systems quickly and, as we go, we are resolving issues, glitches and problems along the way. That is a daily process that will continue through the crisis that we are in.” 

Labour later highlighted official figures showing the staff headcount in adult care homes was 53,500 in 2018, meaning less than five per cent of staff have been tested.

Mr Leonard said afterwards: “It is deeply concerning that such a small proportion of social care staff have had tests extended to themselves or a family member. 

“The First Minister must take urgent steps to redress this.

"I have repeatedly called for the number of social care workers tested to be regularly reported. These figures show that progress has been incredibly slow in testing social care workers, and they demonstrate the importance of regular reporting."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said care homes were “full of vulnerable people” and urged Ms Sturgeon to reconsider testing new residents in advance.

She said: “I want to see testing used to the maximum where it will help us; that is not the issue. The problem with testing someone who does not have symptoms is that the test result is not necessarily reliable.

“It may tell you that they do not have the virus, even when they might be in the incubation period. It does not reliably tell you what you want to know. 

“The danger is that it gives a false assurance that someone does not have the virus, when perhaps they do, but it is at a stage at which it is not showing up. That is why we must keep prioritising infection prevention and control.”

Mr Rennie also asked about the guidance for businesses during the lockdown, given several factories were now planning to reopen in the coming days

The First Minister said: “The advice to businesses in Scotland stays as it has been. 

“We have taken a tougher line than some other parts of the United Kingdom, which some people have criticised us for, but I think that it is appropriate. 

“Some businesses have been told to close: shops, pubs and restaurants, for example. 

“We know that others have to stay open because they are essential to keeping the lights on, and to delivering food supplies. 

“However, to businesses in the middle, we have tried to give very clear precautionary guidance that if what they are doing is not essential, if they cannot allow their workers to work at home, and if they cannot be absolutely sure that they have safe social distancing, then on the precautionary principle - prioritising the health of workers - they should be closed. That guidance remains.” 

Data culled from death certificates and released by the National Records of Scotland on Wednesday showed 237 Covid-related deaths in homes out of 962 up to April 12.

Ms Sturgeon responded to the figures by announcing an immediate move towards testing all symptomatic residents in care homes, not just the first person to show symptoms.

However she suggested the problem could get worse, noting that in some European countries 40 to 50% of deaths were in care homes.