EVERYONE who comes face-to-face with someone suffering from coronavirus will need to spend 14 days self-isolating at home as part of the Scottish Government's new contact tracing strategy.

Unveiling details of the Test and Protect programme, which will go live on Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon said it would only work if Scots do what is required of them and keep themselves indoors - even if they feel perfectly healthy.

The new system means that a person with symptoms should take a coronavirus test and also isolate for seven days.

If their test comes back positive, they will be asked for details of people they share a house with, anyone they have had face to face contact with, and people they have been within two metres of for a period of 15 minutes or more. 

All of those contacts will be then approached by public health officials and told to self isolate for 14 days – the incubation period of coronavirus.

Those contacts will only be tested if they too become syptomatic as testing before then might not give an accurate result.

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In guidance published by the Government, those who are self-isolating, are also urged to "try to physically separate" themselves from other people in their homes.

This includes sleeping "alone in a separate bed" if they can.

Speaking at the briefing, Sturgeon also revealed that Scotland is now able to carry out more than 15,000 tests a day and will have 2000 contact tracers by the end of the month - though she said she expects only about 700 will be needed.

Sturgeon said: "This is a system that will operate at a scale not seen before in Scotland.

"We have, of course, had testing and contact tracing before, but we are substantially increasing the scale.

"Over the first couple of weeks it will need to bed down but introducing it at the same time as we take the first very cautious steps out of lockdown gives us the opportunity to address any operational issues ahead of a potentially more substantial easing of restrictions at the next review date in three weeks."

Public health software already used to trace the contacts of those with other infectious diseases has also been scaled up, Sturgeon said.

She urged those with symptoms of coronavirus not to delay seeking a test.

In guidance issued for employers, bosses have also been told not ask anyone self-isolating to go into work but may ask them to work from home.

Sturgeon said the Scottish Government has been in touch with the UK Government to "ensure that employment rights and entitlement to benefits, including statutory sick pay, take account of the fact that people might be off work or unable to attend appointments through no fault of their own".

Being asked to isolate in this way is "something that over the months ahead could happen to any of us on more than one occasion", Sturgeon said.

"Your privacy will be respected at all times during this process," she added, saying the information of tested persons will not be accessible by the Scottish Government and will be handled within the NHS.

In response to a question about the risk of unsolicited phone calls from fraudsters posing as contact tracers, Sturgeon said: "We are taking steps at every stage here to protect people's privacy and to make sure there is security.

"We will make sure that we give more details about exactly what those steps are, both in terms of the people giving the information about contact tracers and the people who are being contacted by a contact tracer, in terms of the steps that will be taken to ensure verification of identity."

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The First Minister was asked if she thought the Dominic Cummings row would undermined the willingness of people to self-isolate. 

She said: ”I'm confident that the Scottish people will continue to do the right thing because, while sure there's a lot of anger and frustration about certain things that we've been hearing about in the last few days, ultimately we all know that we are not just complying with all of this advice because somebody is telling us to,  we're complying with it because it's in our own interest.

“I don't think Scottish people are going to get into the position of us cutting off our noses to spite our face. We're doing this for the best of reasons: it's protecting ourselves, it's protecting the people we love and it's protecting our wider communities. 

“And I think that common sense and desire to do the right thing will shine through. I've certainly had that faith and the good sense of the Scottish people reinforced and strengthened in me over the past couple of months and I've no reason to believe that will change as we go into the next phase of this.”