Nicola Sturgeon denied that she had a "coordinated media strategy" with Professor Devi Sridhar because the public health expert was the only one of the government's advisors to support a zero Covid policy.

The former First Minister said she favoured a "maximum suppression" strategy during 2020 - before vaccines were available - because it seemed like an "aim worth striving for".

She told the UK Covid inquiry that the Scottish Government's ambition after exiting the first lockdown in summer 2020 was to drive the virus to its "lowest possible level", but stressed that it was never her belief during this time that "we would get Covid to a level where it was eliminated and went away".

"My motives in this were only ever about trying to do the right thing to minimise the overall harm that the virus was doing," said Ms Sturgeon, who repeatedly denied during the course of her evidence that she had used the pandemic to score political points against the UK Government by adopting by differing tactics.

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Becoming emotional, Ms Sturgeon added: "The toll it took in Scotland as in other parts of the UK was far too high, so I didn't do that as well as I wish I had been able to...but I take it very personally when people question the very motives, because I know that the motives were absolutely in the best faith and for the best reasons."

Jamie Dawson KC, lead counsel to the inquiry in Scotland, suggested that Ms Sturgeon's "desire to be the person who drove Covid out of Scotland was the reason you entered into Twitter conversation with Professor Sridhar who Professor Morris, the chair of the Covid group, said was in a 'minority of one' in being the only person on that group who thought that Covid could be driven out of Scotland at that time".

The Herald: Nicola Sturgeon leaves the UK Covid inquiry in Edinburgh following a day of evidence in relation to Scottish Government decision-makingNicola Sturgeon leaves the UK Covid inquiry in Edinburgh following a day of evidence in relation to Scottish Government decision-making (Image: PA)

Earlier in the day, the inquiry heard that Ms Sturgeon used to exchange direct messages via Twitter with Prof Sridhar, the chair of global public health at Edinburgh University and a member of the Scottish Government's Covid Advisory Group.

Prof Sridhar became a high-profile media personality during the pandemic, frequently appearing on news programmes to provide explanation and analysis of Covid developments.

Professor Mark Woolhouse - a fellow Edinburgh University academic and government advisor who was an expert in infectious diseases - has previously told the inquiry that Scotland "never got close" to eliminating Covid in the summer of 2020, and that the only way this would have been achievable was through "indefinite" lockdown.

Ms Sturgeon said she "desperately wanted to minimise the harm of Covid" and had "reached out" to Prof Sridhar because she was "very plugged into the responses in different countries".

Ms Sturgeon went on: "I just wanted to understand as much as I could about other countries' approaches.

"It was a case of me just trying to make sure I wasn't missing anything."

Mr Dawson said: "Your messages with her demonstrate a coordination of the two of yours' media strategy.

"What you were trying to equip yourself with was the view of a scientist who would support your view that elimination was possible, even though she was in a 'minority of one' on your Covid Advisory Group."

Ms Sturgeon said: "Whatever impression the messages might give, I know that there was no coordination of media strategy...there was an alignment.

"I wanted the Scottish Government to be suppressing Covid as much as possible. She believed that could go further than others believed it could."

Mr Dawson suggested that the Scottish Government's pursuit of zero Covid meant it had "taken its eye off the ball" when it came to preparing for a second "inevitable" Covid wave.

"I don't accept we took our eye off the ball," said Ms Sturgeon, adding that the government had expanded its contact tracing and testing capacity over the summer.

By September 2020, households in Glasgow were banned from visiting one another's homes as Covid case numbers began climbing and hospitality restrictions were gradually re-imposed.

Earlier in the day, Ms Sturgeon said that failing to lockdown "a week, two weeks earlier" in March 2020 was her biggest regret.

She denied making pandemic decisions for political reasons, adding she had not "thought less" about politics and Scottish independence in her life than she did during the pandemic.

"I was motivated solely by trying to do the best we could to keep people as safe as possible," she added.

"We did that to some extent, but not to, and perhaps we never could have done it to the extent I would have wished we could have done.

"I carry the regret for the loss of life, the loss of opportunity, the loss of education of our young people, I carry that with me every single day."