Nicola Sturgeon: Leicester-style local lockdowns 'cannot be ruled out'

Nicola Sturgeon has not ruled out a Leicester-style lockdown being necessary in Scotland after a “complex cluster” of coronavirus cases was identified in Dumfries and Galloway.

There has been a cluster of cases on the border

But the “test and protect” contact tracing programme is expected to contain the situation after nine new cases of Covid-19 in the Gretna and Annan areas have been reported since Monday.

The outbreak emerged as the latest weekly statistics showed the number of deaths from the virus continuing to fall in Scotland.

The north-west of England and Dumfries and Galloway are at the centre of the latest concerns.

A cross-border response is underway

Scotland national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch said yesterday: “A number of cases have been identified around Gretna and Annan.

“This is a complex, but small cluster captured in different testing areas – in a hospital testing site, in a mobile testing unit and in a drive-through testing unit.”

An assessment group was established in Dumfries and Galloway to look into the situation. A full “cross-Border incident management team” met yesterday afternoon to discuss further action.

Prof Leitch said Scotland’s “test and protect” contact tracing programme had been “fully initiated” to deal with the cases in Dumfries and Galloway. “Contacts are being traced and provided with the appropriate public health advice,” he said, adding that the measures “should contain the cluster”.

Jason Leitch says "Test and Protect" has been mobilised

The last positive case in Dumfries and Galloway had been more than a week ago on 22 June.

Ms Sturgeon said the prospect of further action to contain the situation was under “ongoing discussion”.

“Our aim as far as possible is to contain any cluster and any outbreaks through the kind of arrangements and the kind of interventions that Jason has been describing,” she said.

“Clearly if at any point, in any area, we worried that that is not possible, then… as has been seen in Leicester in recent days, other interventions might become necessary.”

Leicester, which went into further lockdown on Tuesday, leads England’s worst affected regions after reporting 140 cases per 100,000 people in the week to 21 June.

The situation underlines the importance of the Scottish Government’s policy to get as “close to elimination as we can”, Ms Sturgeon said.

She said: “If we get it to that level, that means that these flare-ups that we will inevitably see can be laser-like controlled in a way that is not possible if you have flare-ups on a higher baseline.

“It then becomes much easier for it to just run away from you and run out of control.”

Prof Leitch said the cross-Border aspect of the outbreak “adds a complexity” to the situation. “Some of the testing will have been done in England and some of the testing will have been done in Scotland,” he said.

“The teams have brought that together and discusses it at that assessment group yesterday and decided these cases are connected.

“So therefore we’re going to put in place a cross-Border incident management team, which is exactly what Health Protection Scotland are meant to do with Public Health England.”

But he added: “Clusters are easier to deal with than sustained community transmission, so we can use precision public health measures, health protection teams, to go to and manage that individual cluster and control it.

“That’s a much easier process than having to suggest to the cabinet secretary and the First Minister that ‘we’ve got community transmission again, could you please think about locking down either an area or the whole country?’.”

He also confirmed two people who work at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray have tested positive for the presence of coronavirus antibodies, suggesting they have previously been infected.

The two individuals are self-isolating and contact tracing is ongoing, he said.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway say case numbers in the area have been “relatively small”, but the situation is being monitored “very closely”.

Valerie White, interim director of public health, said: “These new cases are a clear reminder of the challenges we face in learning to live with Covid-19. As we move out of lockdown, we are very likely to see areas of localised outbreak.”

The number of excess deaths in Scotland has fallen below the five-year average for the first time since the initial week of lockdown, the latest weekly figures from the National Records of Scotland reveal. From 22-28 June, there were 20 fewer deaths (1,006) than the average over the past five years (1,026). It is the first time since 23-29 March the total weekly deaths has fallen below the average.

As well as the drop in Covid fatalities, there have been fewer deaths from other causes such as cancer.

The overall death toll for Covid-19 in Scotland is now 4,155, with 35 deaths recorded in the past week – down 14 on the previous week. This is the ninth weekly reduction in a row and the lowest weekly total since mid-March.

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