RICHARD Leonard has revealed a close relative has died of coronavirus as he pushed the Scottish Government to ramp up the testing of care workers.

The Scottish Labour leader told MSPs his uncle succumbed to the disease last week.

It is understood 92-year-old Ralph Riley died in a home in Ipswich.

Half of Scotland’s care homes have reported a case of Covid-19, and more than a third of deaths in Scotland so far have been in care homes.

At First Minister’s Questions, Mr Leonard said families across the country were “deeply concerned” about the situation in care homes. 

He said: “I speak from personal experience. On Friday last week, I lost my own uncle to Covid-19. He was living in a care home.”

Ms Sturgeon said: “Let me convey my condolences to Richard Leonard for his personal loss.

“One of the difficult things for all of us in dealing with this is the impact that this virus is having means that there are now very few of us who, either through our own families or friends or wider networks, don’t know somebody who has been affected in some way.”

She said: “Each and every day we try to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect those on the front line and in care homes.”

She said testing was being expanded and around 6000 care home staff or their families had been tested, and that number would continue to increase.

Mr Leonard said that was “considerably less” than one in five of Scotland’s care home staff.

Mr Leonard also said there should be fatal accident inquiry for every health and care worker who died from coronavirus in their line of work.

Ms Sturgeon said it was for the Lord Advocate to instruct fatal accident inquiries.

Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw accused the Scottish Government of not doing enough for the North Sea oil and gas sector, after it warned 20,000 to 30,000 jobs could be lost over the next 18 months as the pandemic caused a recession and a slump in oil prices.

He said the UK government had given billions to the industry and north east in recent years, and asked what the Scottish Government had planned.

Ms Sturgeon said the government was still considering what action to take.

She said: “ We haven’t come to final decisions. We will continue to discuss with the sector. “I would point out that most of the levers around oil and gas, the fiscal regime there, lie with UK Government, so perhaps the most important discussion we have to have is with the UK government, who have been very forthcoming in support for businesses.”

Mr Carlaw said afterwards: “Workers and their families across the north east are hugely concerned about the future.

“They need answers now from the SNP government, especially amid such dire warnings.

“But they will be disappointed at the lack of response from Nicola Sturgeon, who appears to be dithering when it comes to support for one of Scotland’s most important industries.

“People in the north east have long suspected that the nationalists just aren’t interested in helping out the oil and gas sector.

“The exchange at First Minister’s questions will do nothing to convince them otherwise.”

Ms Sturgeon also  said she would like to move "right now" to a universal basic income (UBI) in Scotland if only Holyrood had the necessary powers.

The First Minister said she would raise it with the UK Government in light of the financial hardships being caused by the pandemic.

The thinktank Reform Scotland recently recommended a UBI of £5200 for every adult and £2600 for every child in Scotland to help cope with the coronavirus crisis.

The £20bn annual cost - half the current Scottish budget - would be paid for by scrapping some benefits, scrapping the personal allowance, and adding 8p to all rates of income tax.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said the lockdown was causing financial problems for businesses and individuals which could continue “if we only use the existing tax and spending architecture”.

He said: “Would it not make sense, at least for the length of this pandemic, to use some form of universal basic income to deal with this problem?”

He also asked Ms Sturgeon to raise the idea with Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week so that it could be implemented in the next stage of the pandemic.

She said: “I’m on record as previously being very interested in universal basic income, and I think the experience of this pandemic and the impacts of dealing with it make the case for that stronger than ever.

“So I certainly want to see that seriously considered as an option. I don’t want to stray into political or constitutional territory right now, but I really wish we had the totality of powers in this parliament where we could move ahead with something like that right now.

But of course with welfare still largely reserved we would need to do that in cooperation and collaboration with the UK Government.

“So yes I will raise it with the UK Government and continue to do so.”