Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon says people with mild symptoms to be told 'soon' to self-isolate for seven days

The First Minister said the move would follow a wider shift to a ‘delay’ policy

Nicola Sturgeon has said Scottish people will be told to stay at home and self-isolate for seven days if they are experiencing even mild symptoms of coronavirus.

The First Minister, speaking on Good Morning Britain, said anyone with symptoms “indicative of coronavirus”, will be asked to self-isolate “soon”.

This would mean those with a dry cough, a fever, or shortness of breath will be forced to self-isolate in attempt to delay the spread of the virus.

The comments come as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to chair a Cobra meeting to decide whether to move into the ‘delay’ stage of the government’s measures to tackle the spread of the virus.

Ms Sturgeon said: “The time has come to move from the policy of seeking to contain the virus into one that is about delaying it.

“Certain steps and measures will flow from that, the earliest of those is likely to be advice to the general public that if anyone is experiencing symptoms, even quite mild symptoms that are indicative of coronavirus then they should be self-isolating and staying at home perhaps for a period of seven days.

“That is likely to come from the Scottish Government and other governments across the UK soon.”

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said those with mild symptoms will be told to stay at home for a week.

She added that it was not possible for the virus to simple “go away” and called on the UK government to move to the delay stage of the containment measures.

Ms Sturgeon said: “This is a serious situation.

“We cannot make this virus go away, it is highly likely now that significant numbers of us are going to get this virus, the vast majority will have very mild illness and our clear focus now is doing everything we can to protect those who are more susceptible to serious illness.

“But we cannot make this go away, we need to focus on how we manage this outbreak, reduce and delay the spread, and reduce the numbers infected at any one time.”