A FORMER chief medical officer of Scotland has said that Covid-19 could be back under control in weeks if rules are followed.
Professor Sir Harry Burns, who served as Scotland's top doctor between 2005 and 2014, urged people to follow the latest restrictions and maintain compliance with hygiene measures which have been in place since the start of the pandemic.
Following a spike in cases, the Scottish Government banned gatherings in people's homes and brought a 10pm curfew for hospitality businesses into force.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Burns said: "Within the next two to three weeks we should see things settling down, so long as people are observing the rules.
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"What we have learned up until now is that if people self isolate when they're required to, if they use face coverings, hand washing and so on, it suppresses the prevalence of the virus in the community.
"So, the quicker that people learn to do that and stick with it, we will see things coming down within two to three weeks."
The former chief medical officer also said that students would "hopefully learn a lesson" from the spikes being seen in halls of residence since the start of the academic year.
He said: "We should work hard to get on top of these outbreaks. I think the students involved in the big outbreaks will hopefully have learned a lesson about the need for social distancing and so on."
Burns agreed with Universities Scotland director Alistair Sim, who was also on the programme, that students should remain in halls of residence whenever possible.
He said: "It's a balance that needs to be struck, a balance of harms - the harm of Covid-19 or the harm of disruption to your education and so on.
He added: "I tend to agree with Alistair, it's probably better in most cases for them to stay where they are."
Reports surfaced over the weekend of students leaving their halls of residence and returning home as the risk of contracting the virus in the accommodation remained high.
Sim said the best thing for supporting the wellbeing and education of students is for them to remain at university.
He said: "We think the best thing to do for your learning, for supporting you through this is actually to make sure you get the best possible learning experience this semester through a blend of high quality online learning."
For all guidance please visit www.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/
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