ASYMPTOMATIC people who test positive for Covid on a lateral flow device will no longer be expected to get a confirmatory PCR test, under changes designed to free up pressure on testing services.
Nicola Sturgeon also confirmed that self-isolation can be cut from 10 to seven days if people have had at least three vaccine doses and also test negative for the virus on an LFD on days six and seven.
It comes as surveillance revealed that an estimated one in 20 people in Scotland were infected in the week to December 31 – the highest prevalence at any point in the pandemic, and up from one in 40 the previous week.
In England, around one in 15 people were believed to be infected.
Data also shows that the Omicron variant is now making up around 91 per cent of cases in Scotland, based on the prevalence of swabs featuring the S-gene dropout – a genomic marker common to Omicron.
In her first update to MSPs on the Covid situation since the new year, Ms Sturgeon said she expect to see “continued growth in the level of infection” as people return to work and school after he festive break, with “extremely serious implications for the NHS and social care”.
However, she conceded that the current requirements for 10-day self-isolation in Scotland – compared to seven days for the rest of the UK – was compounding pressures on the economy and critical services, which are struggling with increasing rates of staff absence.
She said: “While the initial advice when someone tests positive will still be to self-isolate for 10 days, there will now be an option to end isolation after seven days as long as you, firstly, have no fever and, secondly, you record two negative lateral flow tests, one no earlier than day six after testing positive and another at least 24 hours later.
“The second change applies to close contacts of positive cases – including household contacts – who are either under the age of 18 years, four months, or who are older than that and fully vaccinated.
“By fully vaccinated, we mean first, second and booster or third doses.”
Close contacts of people who test positive will also be able to avoid isolating if they carry out a daily lateral flow instead – as long as they are also fully vaccinated and continue to return a negative result.
More to follow
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