PEOPLE showing symptoms of Covid will only be advised to stay at home from Sunday onwards, as changes to the Scottish Government’s guidelines come into effect.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has said that Scotland is now at a “different phase of the pandemic”, and that self-isolation rules previously in place are no longer needed.
Instead, people who have a fever or are too unwell to carry out normal activities will be asked to stay at home, while children will be able to go to school if they are well enough to attend.
Testing sites for the general population will close at the weekend, meaning people will no longer be able to access PCR tests.
The changes, part of the Test and Protect Transition Plan which was published last month, will also see all contact tracing ending.
However, testing will remain available to certain groups in order to protect high risk settings, support clinical care and for surveillance purposes.
PCR testing is coming to an end
Those groups include health and social care workers, care home and hospital visitors, patient groups eligible for treatment, hospital patients, unpaid carers and people in prison.
Children and young people aged 18 and under with mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or slight cough, who are otherwise well, do not need to stay at home and can continue to attend schools or childcare.
The Protect Scotland app will also be closed down shortly, but users are encouraged to keep the app on their phones in case it is needed again at a future date.
NHS Scotland will also be taken out of emergency footing at the end of Saturday 30 April as Covid-19 cases continue to fall.
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Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “Scotland’s Test and Protect programme has been one of the key interventions in our response to Covid-19, the success of which has been due, in no small part, to the remarkable staff and volunteers working in Test and Protect - my sincere thanks go to them.
“I would also like to thank the Scottish public for their commitment and willingness to engage with Test and Protect when it was required of them and helping to protect their fellow citizens.
“However, we recognise we are now in a different phase of the pandemic. The primary purpose of testing is changing from population-wide testing to reduce transmission, to a targeted response focused on reducing severe harm of the virus.”
He added: “As we are now seeing a steady reduction in new Covid cases, the NHS will no longer remain on emergency footing after Saturday 30 April. But we must continue with a measured approach to support the recovery and renewal of our NHS.
“This will require balancing capacity of the NHS and the wellbeing of the workforce to respond to increasing demands for urgent care while reducing the backlog of planned care.”
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