FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned the coronavirus peak is still some time away as she announced the number of deaths in Scotland has risen to 172.
The Covid-19 death toll is an increase of 46 on the previous day, while 3001 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland – up from 2602 on Thursday.
There are 176 people are in intensive care with the disease or expected to have it, a rise of 14.
The First Minister said: “I want to be very clear that nothing I have seen gives me any basis whatsoever for predicting the virus will peak as early as a week’s time here in Scotland.”
She said the Scottish Government’s targets on testing are proportionally equal to what is being done in the rest of UK, although the expansion to allow 3500 tests per day in Scotland is slightly higher proportionally.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they plan to carry out 100,000 coronavirus tests a day in England by the end of April.
The Scottish Government is looking at how antibody testing – which can tell if a person has previously had the virus – can move Scotland out of lockdown, although the test does not currently exist in a “reliable form”, Sturgeon added.
A testing oversight group has been set up by the Scottish Government, she announced, which has been tasked with monitoring the provision of tests for the disease.
The group will be responsible for the increase in capacity of the labs in Scotland, along with the Scottish side of the delivery of the UK initiative to allow “non-NHS testing”.
Sturgeon also announced that vulnerable people who are “shielding” from the virus for 12 weeks will be able to receive deliveries of food and other essential items through a text messaging service.
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