JUST over half of Scotland’s Covid-19 testing capacity is being used two months on from the first reported case of the infection in Scotland.

As the number of confirmed deaths from the disease surpassed 1500 for the first time, Nicola Sturgeon announced plans to expand eligibility for testing to all over-65s with virus symptoms, as well as ramping up investigations into care home outbreaks through mass testing of all staff and residents.

Antibody surveillance using blood samples gathered from across Scotland is also set to be rolled out from next week to gauge the levels of exposure and potential immunity from the virus within the population as a whole.

The First Minister said Scotland’s testing regime and capacity would be escalated further as part of a ‘test, trace and isolate’ strategy to be unveiled next week to “help us gradually emerge from lockdown”.

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However, the latest figures indicate that only 56 per cent of Scotland’s total available testing capacity was being used as recently as Thursday.

Ms Sturgeon said Scotland’s total testing capacity had been “significantly increased” from a maximum of 350-a-day when the first case was detected on March1 to a potential daily turnover of 4,350 now through NHS labs, which process hospital, care home and community samples.

In addition, up to 4000 tests can also be analysed every day at the Glasgow University-based Lighthouse Centre, which became operational last week.

This so-called superlab mainly processes kits returned by the UK Government-funded mobile and drive-thru testing centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth and Aberdeen.

Ms Sturgeon said total testing capacity was on track to reach 12,000 by mid-May, with further expansion planned.

However, as of Thursday, she confirmed that 2,537 tests had been processed through the NHS labs and 2,134 at the Lighthouse Centre, a 58% and 53% use of capacity respectively.

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It comes amid ongoing reports of key workers being turned down for tests, care homes struggling to access test kits, and difficulties getting convenient booking slots at drive-thru centres.

Ms Sturgeon said testing “can’t simply be about chasing numbers”.

She added: “It’s really important to stress that fluctuations in daily demand will mean that we will never perfectly match the number of tests to our capacity for testing.

“Our aim on an ongoing basis is to use as much of our capacity each day as possible.”

Care homes, which now account for more deaths per week from Covid than hospitals, will also be subject to “enhanced outbreak investigation” from next week, said Ms Sturgeon.

It will apply to all homes which report coronavirus cases, which currently accounts for around 40% of all premises in Scotland.

Ms Sturgeon said: “That will involve testing, subject to their consent, all residents and staff whether or not they have symptoms.”

Testing would be extended to sister facilities if staff members move between different sites. Sample testing will also be undertaken in care homes with no known or suspected cases.

Access to drive-thru testing - previously reserved to key workers such as NHS staff - is being extended to all over-65s with symptoms, or people they live with.

Non-key workers required to leave the house to go to work can also book for a test, although the First Minister stressed that “there shouldn’t be anyone in this group”.

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However, there were calls for the Scottish Government to go "faster and further" on testing, including raising awareness about how to access it.

Theresa Fyffe, director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Scotland said: "Regular testing of health and care workers and the people they are caring for, even if they have no symptoms, is needed.

“Health and care staff need to understand the options available to them for testing. Findings from a recent survey by RCN Scotland about testing showed that 43% of staff did not know how to access testing."

The Scottish Government expanded testing this week to include all over-70s admitted to hospital, regardless of symptoms.

However, Marion O’Neill, Cancer Research UK’s head of external affairs, said routine testing of all patients and staff will be needed if cancer services are to resume safely.

Some cancer surgery and chemotherapy has been put on hold due to the potential risk of infection in hospitals treating Covid patients.

This has led to calls for some NHS hospitals, private hospitals, or designated areas of acute hospitals to be designated 'Covid-free' zones for cancer and other vulnerable patients whose treatment has been delayed.

This would require prior testing of anyone admitted to these sites to minimise the risk.

Ms O'Neill said: “The expansion of testing in Scotland announced by the First Minister is welcome but it doesn’t go far enough in that the impact of Covid-19 on the stalling of cancer services has not yet been addressed.

“If cancer services are to resume, introducing a widespread Covid-19 testing programme for patients and healthcare staff to maximise the likelihood of a safe clinical environment, will be crucial. A rapid response to this is required – patient survival depends on it.”

Ms Sturgeon said the plans outlined yesterday were “separate and distinct” from plans for a test, trace and isolate approach as lockdown measures are eased. Further detail on that, and associated increases in testing, will be laid out next week.

Meanwhile, 770 blood samples a week are to be collected from health boards across Scotland from May 6 as part of an antibody surveillance drive. The samples will be analysed for Covid-19 antibodies at a Health Protection Scotland lab in Inverness.

Some people infected with coronavirus experience mild or no symptoms, but individual antibody test kits have so far proved too unreliable to identify them. Using multiple blood samples gathered from various parts of Scotland, however, is expected to give a “statistically robust estimate” of the virus’ spread in the population.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “This approach is suitable for surveillance purposes and has been fully verified.

“It adds to the information already being collected in hospital labs about severe illness and through community testing of those with mild to moderate symptoms.”