Professor Jason Leitch says he is still worried about the “overwhelmed nature” of the health service as the legal requirement to wear face coverings comes to an end in Scotland.
The national clinical director said coronavirus is now being dealt with through common sense and guidance rather than law.
He spoke to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme on Monday, saying it was the first time he had been in the studio in person in two years.
Vaccination and therapeutics have “changed the game”, Prof Leitch said, but he acknowledged the daily case rate was still high.
He said: “We’re still cautious as public health advisers because we’re still worried about the overwhelmed nature of our health systems around the world – not just here, but Scotland is no exception.
“Our emergency departments are struggling, our hospitals are struggling, not just with Covid – with backlog, with everything else coming in that has waited until this point to come forward.”
During the pandemic many people have been waiting before approaching the health service with their illness.
Prof Leitch was asked about the fact he had not been convinced by the effectiveness of face coverings early in the pandemic.
He said he wished he had known at that stage about the extent of asymptomatic transmission and the airborne nature of the virus.
The national clinical director was also asked about a video showing Nicola Sturgeon not wearing a face mask during a campaign visit to a barber’s at the weekend.
He said: “I haven’t spoken to the First Minister today, I imagine I’ll speak to her later.
“My understanding is it was a matter of seconds. She realises the place is crowded, puts her face covering on. Which is actually what we’re asking people to do.
“The guidance is if you are in a crowded area inadvertently or deliberately, then put a face covering on and that will protect you and others.”
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