Latest update: First Minister confirms a further increase in Aberdeen cases
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In her lunchtime statement, the First Minister today confirmed that the number of cases linked to the Aberdeen coronvirus cluster has increased.
A further 67 new positive cases have been logged in Scotland with the bulk, 39, being in the Grampian area while in the Glasgow and Clyde area there were 17 new positive cases.
The First Minister said: "I must strongly warn against any shred of complacency.
"Not all of the new cases are linked to outbreak, but we must be on our guard – this virus is very much still out there."
"In Aberdeen as of now, 79 cases are confirmed with cluster this is an increase of 25 and a further 30 cases are possibly linked.
"233 close contacts have been identified – that will rise during today.
"Many of those positive cases and contacts have been linked to licensed premises in Aberdeen and a list has been published of those."
She continued: "It is important to be clear is not that one particular person in this cluster has visited all these premises, it is that someone who has tested positive has been in each location, but it will be different people in each of them."
Questions raised over the effectiveness of contact tracing led her to explain: "We have been asked why members of the public who have visited these premises have not all been actively contact traced and it is a reasonable question
"But the answer is that they may not have been there at the same time as the person who tested positive or they might not be classified as a close contact – that is within the two metres for the requisite period.
"The point is contact tracers are professionals and trained in what they do and they assess who should be traced.
"However if you have been to any of these places and test and protect hasn’t been in touch we are still asking you to be extra vigilant for symptoms and if you do put yourself forward for testing immediately and self isolate.
"If you are contacted by Test and Protect in Aberdeen please comply with the advice they give you.
"In fact this applies anywhere in Scotland and I implore you to comply with the advice they give you around self isolation – it is essential that you do this for the entirety of the 14 day period."
Pulling no punches she said: "The further growth of this cluster, on which I fully expect to be standing here tomorrow reporting on a growth beyond the numbers today is a reminder of just how easily this virus spreads and why we had to take decisive action to keep this virus under control."
She continued: "Today is the first day these full restrictions in Aberdeen have been in place.
"Everything shows businesses are complying and I don’t underestimate how hard this is and want to thank them for complying and their cooperation.
"I want to thank everyone in Aberdeen for understanding why this action is necessary and it is necessary and for sticking to this new guidance – I know this is a blow to the city and all of us regret having to take it but I do believe people understand why it is necessary – there are to many uncertainties and we are not confident that we can keep it under control without these measures.
"Allowing this virus to run free in my opinion is just not an option.
"It is not an option at any time in my view given how dangerous we know this virus can be but particularly as we prepare for the reopening of schools.
"All of us must be on our guard.
"As we have seen in Aberdeen, the virus will take any opportunity it can to come back."
However, the difficult job of tracing the source of the outbreak – and identifying the “trigger case” – is under way according to the Health Secretary Jeane Freeman.
She added it was unlikely that one person had visited all 28 bars on the list released by NHS Grampian.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland she said: “In an outbreak like this it is very difficult to identify, if you like, the trigger case, is how it would be described.
“One of the ways that we can do that and this work is unde rway, although it takes some time, is the genome sequencing, that we do. “We’ve talked about this before and that traces back all the different strands of the virus and identifies where it started.
“So that work will get under way, but at this point it is not clear and that’s partly because of the nature of this particular outbreak and the complexity of it.
She added: “It is unlikely that one person has been to all 28 or so venues that have been named. What is more likely is more than one person has been to more than one venue and that is part of the complexity of this.”
“If you think about some of the other outbreaks we have responded and traced right through to the end of the transmission chain, in some ways they’re all very important, but in some ways they have been less complex than this, which is largely centred around the nighttime economy in Aberdeen.”
“So it is complicated to know exactly where everyone has been and that’s part of the test and protect operation which of course we need to remember is still under way, we’ve not concluded this yet.”
