The Scottish Government has been told it needs an "elimination" strategy to tackle Covid-19 in 2021.
A panel of Scots drafted a report with a number of recommendations on how this should be done - with their favoured option being an approach that would "eliminate" the virus and leave restrictions in place until case numbers are at zero.
The broadly representative group of 19 people were convened by Holyrood’s Covid-19 Committee and had four sessions in response to the pace of regulations being brought in by the Scottish Government.
It comes as Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish Government hopes to outline Scotland's new route map for exiting lockdown next week.
READ MORE: Scottish Government to publish route map out of lockdown outlining 'strategic framework'
Chief among the report's recommendations is transparency on the Scottish Government’s plans for tackling the virus this year.
Covid-19 Committee convener Donald Cameron said: “The committee is very grateful to the members of the public and experts who gave their time to participate in deliberations.
“The steps taken to counter this virus are so drastic they would have been unimaginable a year ago. It is therefore vital we gauge the public mood as we enter into the next phase of managing the pandemic.
“The considered priorities of this broadly representative group, who have looked at the issue with fresh eyes, will help inform us as we begin to look at the likely extension of the emergency powers, and work to ensure the efforts of Government are focused in the right place.
“We are looking forward to hearing more from panel members, and testing their conclusions, at our next meeting.”
The panel pushes for an elimination strategy to be put in place to fight the virus, which would see restrictions in place to slowly work the number of cases to zero.
But they accept there would need to be an agreement across the UK, and it would also require Scots to make a number of “sacrifices” – particularly around travel restrictions.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon gives latest coronavirus figures hailing 'encouraging' news
The UK and Scottish governments are currently locked in discussions on travel rules, with Holyrood choosing to make every traveller arriving from abroad quarantine in a hotel for 10 days, while only those from “red list” countries are forced to do so in England.
In areas of the response where an elimination strategy cannot be used, one of “maximum suppression” is suggested, which would include a robust Test and Protect scheme to track cases across the country as numbers begin to fall.
Other harms caused by the virus, the panel said, such as economic, social and other health problems, would all be helped by the suppression of the virus.
In all cases, the panel said the Scottish Government should be clear about what it considers to be an “acceptable level of infection” within the population.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel