A SCOTTISH health chief has warned that taking draconian measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic risks causing another spike in the number of cases, and would be “delaying the inevitable”.

Professor Jason Leitch said government actions such as closing borders, stopping travel and halting public transport would risk creating further problems in the future.

His remarks followed the Scottish Government’s decision to cancel gatherings of more than 500 people as of Monday, but came before the SPFL announced the cancellation of the Scottish football season, including tomorrow’s Old Firm derby.

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Leitch, who is responsible for planning in the Scottish NHS, said: “The best science available says that if you allow the growth at a certain level – and you can’t control 60 million people exactly – we will control the rising of the peak and we won’t create a second peak.

We fear that in other parts of the world that’s what they’re doing.”

He told BBC’s Good Morning Scotland: “If you release those measures, the virus is still there and you have very few people who are now immune to the virus because you have very few people who have caught the virus. You’re just delaying the inevitable.”

On the potential for school closures, Leitch said they are “not necessarily going to happen” and said children having to be looked after and their apparent lower contagion were two key reasons for not shutting them at this stage.

“I absolutely guarantee there is no plan right now, and no substantive rumours, that we’re going to close schools next week,” he said.

“Children aren’t getting sick in the main around the world. All the numbers we have so far are that children are not getting seriously ill.

“They are being infected by the virus; the virus is no respecter, unfortunately, of age or gender or ethnicity or borders, but they are not getting symptoms. You spread more when you have symptoms, so the children are less likely to spread those symptoms.”