A FIVE-NATION quarantine agreement between the UK and Ireland is the “favoured solution”, Scotland’s national clinical director has indicated.

Professor Jason Leitch told Holyrood’s Covid-19 Committee that the best case scenario for avoiding a third wave of coronavirus will be to include the Republic of Ireland in measures due to the existence of a common travel area with the UK.

The Scottish Government has said it will diverge from current UK policy which will see a system of “managed quarantine” brought in for travellers arriving from certain countries.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said those measures do not go far enough and her Government will bring in such a system for all travellers from overseas, while also lobbying Westminster to tighten the rules.

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Neither Professor Leitch nor Scottish Constitution Secretary Mike Russell could give a date for when the new measures will be put in place when quizzed over the measure by MSPs.

But Professor Leitch said: “The public health advice would be that a five-country solution would be the favoured solution – you can imagine why, it’s not rocket science.

“Dealing with any access, via Dublin, from another country would be helpful to us.”

He said if an agreement cannot be struck with other countries in the UK and Ireland, measures should still be put in place in Scotland to ensure coronavirus does not come back in through international travel.

“I’ve said many times at this committee, it doesn’t matter where your low prevalence area is – it could be just Dumfries and Galloway, it could be just the Western Isles, it could be Scotland, it could be the whole common travel area – you have to keep the virus out once you’re at low levels,” Prof Leitch said.

On timescales for the system, Prof Leitch told the committee there is time for Scotland to react, stressing it should be in place as virus rates in the country drop.

“We do have a little bit of time for this, because unfortunately we are presently exporting virus, not importing virus,” he said.

“Our prevalence is high. Denmark just closed to UK nationals, other European countries are closing to UK nationals, it’s not really a decision for us yet, but as we get this number down, it will become absolutely crucial that we do not import for a third wave.”