First Minister's update to the Scottish Parliament - 01 February 2022

The Scottish First Minister has provided an update to the Scottish Parliament. Following our discussions with Scottish Government officials we are able to confirm the statement confirms the following:

The First Minister confirmed that a revised Strategic Framework will be published in the week beginning 21st February, following the February Scottish Parliamentary recess.

COVID-19 Stats:

7,565 positive cases were reported yesterday.

1,177 people are in hospital with Covid. That is 33 less than yesterday.

42 people are in intensive care, 13 of whom have been in intensive care for more than 28 days.

Sadly, a further 30 deaths have been reported, taking the total number of deaths under the daily definition to 10,341.

Current situation:

Most recent data continues to give us grounds for optimism, situation is much less severe now than we thought it would be, rises in early January have now levelled off.

Picture across different age groups is mixed, impact of school return is now becoming to tail off.

*Someone who is reinfected with COVID, does not currently count as a new case in the statistical reports.

Public Health Scotland is working on incorporating reinfection data into the daily statistics by the end of the month.

FM discusses improving trends in terms of cases and hospitalisations.

These trends are a result of vaccination, restrictions from December, this has allowed us to lift measures recently.

Also allowed us to update guidance on home working, to allow enable partial office return, encouraging hybrid working where appropriate.

From end of next week, fully vaccinated travellers will no longer have to take a test upon arrival in Scotland.

FM continues to urge caution and stress pressure on the NHS, recent fall in cases is levelling off.

Baseline measures staying for now:

Cabinet has decided to maintain all baseline measures for at least another three weeks.

This includes the COVID certification scheme, the requirement to collect customer details in hospitality, wearing face coverings in indoor public places and on public transport, for businesses to do all they can to minimise the risks of transmission on their premises.

Sub type of Omicron:

Early signs of a rise in transmission of the BA2 sub variant, likely to increase as more sequencing results are reported.

No evidence at this stage to suggest that BA2 causes more severe harm than the main Omicron variant, or that it is more vaccine resistant.

Investigations are currently ongoing, but not currently a cause for alarm at this stage.

COVID measures for schools, early learning and childcare:

Revised guidance has been published today, that essentially returns schools and early years settings to the situation before Omicron.

Eases requirements for bubbles in schools and less restrictive on school trips and visitors.

Not yet reached the stage where we can say that face masks are no longer required in schools.

Revised Strategic Framework:

FM confirmed that a new Covid-19 Strategic Framework will be published following February Scottish Parliament recess, which sees Parliament return on the 20th February.

First Minister's update to the Scottish Parliament - 01 February 2022

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