SCOTLAND is “not far away” from eliminating community transmission of coronavirus if cases continue to decline, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
If progress continues then this could be “within reach” over the next few months, interim chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith suggested.
The First Minister said there is a difference between the elimination of coronavirus – when the disease is no longer spreading domestically – and eradication, which would require it to be gone altogether.
The First Minister and Smith were asked about the issue at the daily coronavirus briefing yesterday.
Sturgeon said: “The opportunity, if you get it to that level of elimination, is that you can deal with imported cases on a much more targeted basis rather than facing the prospect of general blanket lockdowns again.”
She said the Test and Protect strategy will be key at this point.
The First Minister added: “We are looking at all of these issues just now to make sure we are well prepared and well equipped so we can get it to that level of elimination.
“Which on the figures we’re looking at right now, we are not far away from, but we have to keep at it.
“Then it’s about how we keep it at that level and deal with any flare-ups and outbreaks as they appear.”
She earlier noted the progress Scotland has made in curbing the virus – daily hospital admissions are now in single figures compared to around 200 at the start of April.
Smith urged people to book a test for coronavirus as early as possible if they are showing symptoms, saying this is key to reducing transmission.
He said: “If we can do that then I do think that over the next couple of months we can keep these levels very, very low so that elimination begins to be within reach of us.”
Dealing with imported cases could become even more important to the Covid-19 strategy at that point, he said.
Meanwhile, Professor Devi Sridhar, of the University of Edinburgh, wrote in the Guardian that an increasing number of countries around the world are “trying to suppress the virus to a low level and, where possible, eliminate it before reopening their schools, shops and restaurants”.
She wrote: “This would require mass testing – to catch all symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers – tracing of contacts and isolation for those individuals.”
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