A LEADING expert has suggested more should be done to ventilate public spaces as part of the battle against Covid, such as putting air purifiers in school classrooms.
Professor Stephen Reicher, a behavioural expert from the University of St Andrews, said additional support could be put in place, as well as just asking people to try to keep in the fresh air as much as possible.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday, he said it could be part of “proportionate” measures to keep levels of the virus down, such as wearing face masks in crowded places and social distancing where possible.
“There should be much more I think support for ventilation – that could take various forms,” he said.
“So for instance in Belgium they are talking about putting CO2 monitors which tell you whether you need to ventilate or not in public buildings.
“In New York they are talking about putting air purifiers in every school room.
“So we could be doing much more to ventilate and to help people with ventilation.”
Reicher, who is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) subcommittee on behavioural science, also warned the focus on the so-called “pingdemic” was “treating the symptom as the cause”.
“The reason why there are a lot of pings is because we are in contact with a lot of people who are infected,” he said.
“And the reason why we are in contact with a lot of people who are infected is because infection rates are so high.”
Yesterday it emerged around 50,000 people stopped using Scotland’s Covid tracking app in July, which now has around 902,000 users.
Reicher said it was true that people are deleting the app, but argued most people were being “sensible and cautious”.
“Yes it is concerning, but the danger is if you overstate the extent to which people are not complying, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he said.
“People begin to think well if no-one else is doing it why should I do it?
“So I think it is important to point out that overall actually the population are following the science, the population are seeing the risks and the population are being careful.”
And Yesterday Scotland recorded a further 11 coronavirus deaths, with the number of people in intensive care with covid also increasing.
Another 1307 new cases of the virus were also confirmed in the previous 24 hours before yesterday morning, with 6.1% of tests coming back positive.
There were 60 people in intensive care with the virus on Friday, a rise of three from the previous day’s total.
However the number of people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 was down from 502 on Thursday to 478. The figures also show that 3,994,883 people in Scotland have now received the first dose of a Covid vaccination, with 3,064,441 having had both jabs.
MPs have warned taxpayers will be facing the costs of Covid for decades, while an inquiry will not come quickly enough to learn the lessons needed from the pandemic.
Two reports from the Commons Public Accounts Committee (Pac) said the taxpayer would be exposed to “significant financial risks for decades to come”, and already the estimated cost of the Government measures had reached £372 billion. While the committee also “remains concerned that despite spending over £10bn on supplies, the PPE stockpile is not fit for purpose”.
The Pac said that as of May this year, out of 32 billion items of PPE ordered by the Department of Health and Social Care, some 11bn had been distributed, while 12.6bn are stored in the UK as central stock.
Some 8.4bn on order from other parts of the world have still not arrived in the UK.
But MPs were concerned the stockpile was costing around £6.7 million a week to store, with potential waste levels “unacceptably high”.
Meanwhile Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he has made a “full recovery” after testing positive for Covid.
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