Nicola Sturgeon reacts to publication of care home death figures breakdown

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted the decisions made by the Scottish Government around care homes in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic were designed to keep people “as safe as possible”.

Reacting at the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 briefing on Tuesday, the First Minister said there were “undoubtedly” aspects of the government’s response she would now do differently with the “benefit of hindsight”.

The BBC, using data obtained from the Crown Office’s investigation into care home deaths during the pandemic, published details of the number of deaths reported at each care home in Scotland for the first time on Monday.

First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, was asked for her reaction to the publication of care home death figures.

The SNP leader said: “We at all stages of this pandemic have taken the decisions we thought were best to keep people, including people in care homes, as safe as possible.

"But we have had a developing knowledge about this virus. We know things now about the dangers of asymptomatic transmission that we didn’t know then and if we could turn the clock back and have all of the knowledge then as we have now, undoubtedly there are things not just around care homes, but particularly around care homes and perhaps more widely, we would do differently.

"We didn’t have then the benefit of the hindsight we have today.”

The First Minister insisted the Scottish Government’s response to the pandemic had changed due to learning lessons around care homes, citing the lower number of deaths in care homes during the second wave as evidence.

Ms Sturgeon reiterated her commitment to hold a public inquiry into her government’s handling of the pandemic by the end of this year should the SNP be returned to power.

She said: "Too many people in Scotland have died overall and too many in care homes. The numbers dying in care homes in the second wave are much much lower than in the first wave, though that is no comfort to anybody who has lost a loved one.

"But the reason they have been much lower is because we have learned lessons as we have gone, as our knowledge of the virus has developed, and applied that knowledge and to make sure we were doing everything that was required.”

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