Lanarkshire call centre staff to be tested for Covid-19

It comes as health officials investigate cluster at the Motherwell site.

Staff at the centre of a coronavirus cluster will all undergo testing for the disease in the next 24 hours, their employer has said.

The Sitel call centre, which is contracted to carry out contact tracing on behalf of the NHS, said it was “urgently investigating” a “local outbreak” at its office in Motherwell, Lanarkshire.

It comes after one employee, speaking to the BBC, said they thought at least seven employees had tested positive.

Staff at the centre of a potential coronavirus cluster will all undergo testing for the disease in the next 24 hours, their employer has said.

Sitel said it has requested that all staff who worked at the site be tested in the next 24 hours.

An NHS Test and Trace spokeswoman said: “We are aware of a local outbreak of Covid-19 at the Sitel site in Motherwell. This is being managed by Sitel and colleagues in NHS Lanarkshire, who are following appropriate test and protect action in line with Scottish Government advice.

“We take the safety and wellbeing of our staff very seriously. Everyone at the site is currently working from home while a deep clean takes place, and will be offered a test within the next 24 hours.”

NHS Test and Trace is a service operated by the NHS in England to track and help prevent the spread of Covid-19 south of the border.

Yesterday, NHS Lanarkshire consultant in public health medicine, Dr David Cromie, said: "We became aware this morning [19 July] of a number of potentially linked cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) in Lanarkshire.

"We instigated some immediate measures to reduce risk and are currently investigating the situation," he added.

The Scottish government said contact tracing is under way following the detection of "a small number of potentially linked cases in North Lanarkshire".

"Where potential clusters of cases develop we must find them and act quickly to prevent further spread and we are grateful to local partners for their swift response," a spokesman said.

The spokesman said "a small increase in the number of cases is not unexpected as lockdown is lifted", adding that it highlights the importance of the public co-operating with contact tracers as well as following guidelines on social distancing and wearing face coverings.

The news comes after the Scottish government confirmed another rise in the daily coronavirus figures on Sunday afternoon.

The number of new coronavirus cases in Scotland rose to 23 - the highest daily figure since 26 were reported on June 21.

Cases have steadily risen each day since Tuesday, when three were reported.

Reacting to the latest update, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “This is still a low number of cases - and fluctuation is to be expected - but they will all be carefully examined, so that any patterns are identified.

“Test & Protect is also working to break the chains of transmission,” she added.

There have now been a total of 18,455 positive cases of coronavirus in Scotland since the start of the outbreak.

302 of those were being treated in hospital as of last night - three in intensive care, along with another person who is suspected to have the virus.

The total number of people who have died from Covid-19 stands at 2,491.

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