THE prevalence of coronavirus in Scotland continues to fall as just one in 200 Covid-19 cases carried out is found to be positive.

A scientific paper states Scotland “is on the safe side” in terms of its ratio of positive to negative tests, drawing comparisons with the performance of countries like New Zealand, Australia and South Korea.

The one in 200 tests benchmark has been hit just two months after one in five tests were coming back positive.

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Data covering NHS Scotland labs and UK Government mobile and drive-through test centres shows that last week there were 32,021 tests processed, from which 155 coronavirus cases were found.

That’s a positive case rate of 0.5%, compared to an April rate of 22.6%. Overall in the UK, 1.9% coronavirus tests are bringing back a positive result.

A UK Government scientific paper, which was put together to inform the test and trace strategy, states when more than 10% of tests are positive there’s a problem, while at around 5% “you are likely to be in control”.

Looking towards success stories like Taiwan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, it says when 2% (or less) of tests are positive, “you are on the safe side” of tackling the pandemic.

However the World Health Organisation has recommended keeping the rate under 5% for two weeks before further restrictions can be lifted.

Announcing 14 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said progress would “allow us to consider now whether and to what extent we can give more clarity in terms of indicative dates for the next steps in our routemap out of lockdown”.

The SNP leader is expected to give further details on the easing of restrictions later this week.

However, Sturgeon stressed the virus “hasn’t gone away” and warned if we don’t take care there can easily be new outbreaks, like there have been in Beijing and Germany recently.