THROUGHOUT the Covid crisis I have called for a more rigorous focus to testing as a vital tool to find and control the virus, with the aim of eliminating it.

And as the cases across Scotland continue to rise and we face local lockdowns and a second wave just as the nights are drawing in, so too the focus must return to testing.

That’s because for all the speculative talk about vaccines and crossing fingers for moonshot solutions, we already know how to drive down cases, and other countries have done it far more successfully.

There are countries across the world that have been able to drive down the numbers of cases much more quickly and effectively than we have, and they have all based their approach on rigorous testing, including testing people who are not displaying symptoms.

Unfortunately, the testing system in the UK is a mess. The UK Government characteristically outsourced it to private companies who have struggled to cope.

On a grander scale to what happened when Scottish schools returned, the UK-wide system has collapsed as schools have gone back in England. People are being sent several hundred miles away to privately run drive-through testing centres.

It is abundantly clear that demand has outstripped supply when it comes to testing and the UK system has broken.

It was very alarming to read a report in The Guardian this week which revealed some people in England are being told to put in Scottish postcodes to get a test locally.

This completely undermines the statistics that we need to understand and contain the spread of the virus. It was very telling to hear the First Minister say at her briefing on Wednesday: “If we look at the Test and Protect system, the protect part is working really well.”

Test and Protect is the foundation of Scotland’s strategy to contain Covid, but it doesn’t work if people can’t get a test. I have heard from many constituents in Lothian who have had to wait days to get one, and sometimes even longer for results.

In Scotland, cases are rising sharply, and as we move into winter pressure on the system will get worse, not better. When we in Scotland have taken a wrong turn on Covid, it has usually been because our wagon has been hitched to Boris Johnson’s, and this latest debacle is no different.

For example, the Greens have repeatedly warned that the walk-through centres in university towns needed to be ready for the return of students. Only two have been put in place in time. More are to follow, but like the inconvenient drive-through centres, these are part of the failed UK-wide system, run by private contractors.

We have had months to prepare for this moment, but once again we’re not ready, and again we’re relying on the UK Government to deliver it.

Two thirds of testing in Scotland is carried out by the UK Government’s system. If we are going to avoid a second wave in winter, the Scottish Government needs to produce a new, updated testing strategy which upscales the responsibilities of NHS Scotland so that we are not reliant on the UK Government’s failed approach.

It shouldn’t be beyond Scotland to do this. Look at Denmark, which is a similar sized European country to Scotland. Denmark is also experiencing an increase in cases, but their testing programme means that they are much better positioned to get on top of it.

For every thousand people, Denmark is carrying out 6.3 tests per day on average. This is double the testing rate in Scotland, which is carrying out 2.9 tests per 1000 people.

Public confidence is also vital when it comes to the public health measures to keep us safe. The rule of six is a difficult but necessary restriction to try and stop the spread of the virus. For months now people across the country have made great personal sacrifices to play their part in reducing the spread of this deadly virus.

That’s why the revelation that UK ministers had created exemptions explicitly to allow hunting and shooting to go ahead created such an outcry. In the same way people felt cheated when Boris Johnson’s influencer Dominic Cummings drove 260 miles at a time when people were told not to travel, the image of shooting parties taking to the hills to kill wildlife when children are not allowed to play with their friends is deeply unfair.

There is no specific exemption for hunting or shooting in Scotland, it counts as an organised outdoor activity, but this means these activities are even less restricted in Scotland than they are in England.

The fact is, current regulations mean people who can afford it have more freedoms. If public confidence is going to be maintained, that is unsustainable.