CORONAVIRUS testing is set to quadruple in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
At the moment, three labs in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee can carry out in total about 780 tests a day for the infection.
Responding to a question from Jackson Carlaw during a sombre First Minster’s Questions, Sturgeon said work was under way to increase that to 3,000.
She said: “On testing, front-line critical and key workers, particularly in the national health service and social care, are the priority for our expanded testing services.
“Broadly speaking, we are seeking to meet three objectives with testing.
“The first is to protect those who are most vulnerable and to save lives.
“That is why those who are admitted to hospital with Covid-19 symptoms or with upper respiratory infection will be tested.
“Secondly, we aim to allow critical workers to be at work unless they are actually ill.
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“Work is on-going in all four nations to define the list of critical workers, but it of course includes those at the front line of our NHS and social care services.
“The third objective is to allow surveillance to enable us to monitor the prevalence of the infection across the population.
“Right now, we have three laboratories that are operational, in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee.
“Between them, they currently have the capacity to do around 780 tests per day. Work is under way to expand capacity, initially to enable up to 3,000 tests to be done every day.”
In yesterday’s The National we revealed how some of the most exposed frontline workers – including NHS staff pharmacists were being taken out of the system because of a lack of tests.
Staff who show the main symptoms of coronavirus – a fever or a recurring cough – are forced to self-isolate for a week. If they live with someone who has symptoms they need to stay at home for 14 days.
Testing would allow them to see if they had the virus or if it was something else which wouldn’t require them to come out of the system.
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The First Minister also told MSPs that a “new form of testing” could soon be available.
She said: “That work is being led by the United Kingdom Government.
“The new tests will be dipstick tests rather than swab tests, which will allow people to test themselves much more quickly and tell whether they have had the virus. Those are not available right now, but I hope that the testing will be expanded in that way as soon as possible.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard asked the First Minister about the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) for ambulance staff.
Leonard said there had been deliveries of out of date equipment made to crews on Wednesday, an issue raised by Labour’s Anas Sarwar in the chamber earlier in the week.
The First Minister said it was not for her to decide what equipment is made available to ambulance workers, adding: “There are pressures on those supplies, not just in Scotland but globally right now, but we must do all that we can to support those on the front-line.
“We always owe our front-line health and social care workforce an enormous debt of gratitude but I can say candidly that we will never, ever owe them more than in the weeks and months to come.”
Meanwhile, SNP MSP Richard Lyle was accused of spreading disinformation at the weekly session after he suggested army units were setting up in Strathclyde park in Glasgow.
Stewart McDonald, the SNP defence spokesman, said this was “false”. He added: “The disinformation virus is only going to get worse during this pandemic.”
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