Covid-19 in Scotland - Restrictions to ease & testing widened

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It's been another eventful, landmark day in Scottish football, with Celtic crowned league champions and Hearts relegated from the top flight after the Scottish Professional Football League board agreed to end the Premiership season.

As Celtic fans on the whole heeded club calls not to celebrate at the club's stadium, chief executive Peter Lawwell said "no-one can deny" that Neil Lennon's team, who were 13 points clear of Rangers when the Covid-19 crisis halted fixtures, deserve to win their ninth title in a row.

However, Hearts, who were four points behind Hamilton Academical, have left the door open to a possible legal challenge.

Club chair Ann Budge was last week given approval to work on a proposal for temporary league reconstruction, which would involve expanding the top flight, and Hearts today said they hope this will "avoid the need to go down" the legal route.

Read more here about Scottish football's unresolved issues.

Possilpark tradersCopyright: Possilpark traders

Traders who had been working together to improve Possilpark before the Covid-19 pandemic have turned their focus to helping the vulnerable during the crisis.

Businesses in North Glasgow had been drawing up plans for a Possilpark Business Improvement District, which would lead to investment in local regeneration work.

Now they are providing food parcels, hot meals and glasses repairs to the elderly and vulnerable and protective equipment and vehicle repairs to key workers.

Allied Vehicles Group owner Gerry Facenna said: “There are amazing people trying to thrive here and improving Possilpark can only be a positive thing. During this period, we have many challenges to face as a community and as businesses, but we will be stronger working together.”

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Relegating Hearts by ending the Scottish Premiership season is "unfair" and reconstruction of the league would be supported by players and fans.

So says Alex Mackie, founder of the Foundation of Hearts, which has helped finance the Edinburgh club.

Celtic have also been declared champions and Mackie tells BBC Radio Scotland:"The probability that Celtic would have won the league is medium to high, but the probability that we would have been relegated was not certain at all.

"There were eight games to go and we could have clawed our way back."

Hearts owner Ann Budge has been given approval by the Scottish Professional Football League to come up with a reconstruction plan and Mr Mackie adds: "We need to re-imagine the future and I am pretty certain the fans want reconstruction and the players want it too."

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Many thousands of care home residents have died since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

After criticism from the Labour leader last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "We brought the lockdown in care homes ahead of the general lockdown."

The wider lockdown was announced on 23 March so when were measures to protect people in care homes introduced?

Read more here.

Nicola Sturgeon outlines plans for a road map for easing lock down in Scotland.

Coronavirus lockdown measures in Scotland could begin to be lifted from 28 May, the first minister announced at today's briefing.

Ms Sturgeon said this would mean people could meet someone from another household as long as social distancing is maintained.

More outdoor activities and sports like golf and fishing will also be allowed.

Ms Sturgeon also announced that coronavirus testing will be extended to everyone in Scotland over the age of five who is displaying symptoms.

Read more here.

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At the UK government briefing Gary Gibbon, from Channel 4, suggests the timetable for the tracing app has "slipped somewhat" and the length of time it is taking to return test results is also holding the UK back.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says it is a perfectly reasonable question and the UK will be "learning lessons" as the tracing process unfolds.

He insists the process is "proceeding at pace".

Dr Van-Tam is more candid, saying the "timeliness" of tests must be improved, adding that the UK is testing to protect people and increase understanding of the virus "and not for the hell of it".

"We need to do it bigger and faster and we need to do it as fast as possible."

Is that long-distance train journey essential? And if it is, do you have a booking?

From today, both east and west coast main lines linking Scotland with London are requiring passengers to book their seat in advance.

That ensures they don’t get overcrowded, and that people are not seated too close together.

Until now, that has only been for sleeper services and rail travel overseas. High-speed services in France and beyond require advance booking: no-one is left to stand on the TGV.

Renaissance Care chair Robert Kilgour suggests there has not been the same amount of transparency around local authority care homes from the Scottish government as from the independent sector.

He argues this means 20% of care homes in Scotland – the proportion run by councils – are being judged by a different system with a different level of scrutiny.

Mr Kilgour also tells Drivetime Renaissance Care’s last audited figures show a turnover of £21m, with £1m of pre-tax profit. He said it needed to profit around 6-7% because of tax and bank debt.

He says local authorities paid the independent sector less than what it takes to look after a person in their own care homes.

The success of a vaccine against Covid-19 depends on the virus staying stable and not mutating, Scotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch, explains.

"Vaccines are not this huge panacea - they are not 100% reliable," he admits on BBC Radio Scotland. "The problem with the flu one is that the flu virus notoriously is tricky to pin down - we don't know which one we are going to get come each December.

"Measles vaccine is, on the other hand, very reliable. Same virus, hasn't mutated, we know when it's coming.

"We are hoping that the coronavirus will be the same and it won't do something weird and that, in a year's time, it doesn't look different. All of the science so far suggests that this coronavirus is pretty stable genetically.

"So we are hopeful that, of the 300 vaccine trials that are going across the world just now, one or two of them will be successful going into the turn of the year, the start of next year."

NHS Inform: As well as providing the most up to date guidance on physical health during the pandemic, the website also has a range of tools to support wellbeing - including guides to coping with depression and anxiety.

Clear Your Head: Help, support and tips from the Scottish government.

SAMH: Tips on protecting your mental health at this difficult time, including a blog series.

There are also a number of helplines available over the phone if you need someone to talk to...

• Breathing Space: A weekend and night-time service run by NHS 24:0800 83 85 87.
• Age Scotland: An advice and support line specifically for older people:0800 12 44 222.
• NSPCC Scotland: A support line for children and young people:0800 1111.
• Samaritans: A 24/7 service for crisis support:116 123.

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At the UK government briefing the BBC's Fergus Walsh asks whether the UK was slow to include loss of taste and smell (anosmia) as one of the official symptoms to watch out for in coronavirus cases, given that France identified it at the start of March.

How many extra deaths may have been avoided if it had been done so earlier, he asks.

In response, Dr Van-Tam said the decision to list anosmia as one of the symptoms to look out for had only been done following "painstaking" and thorough scientific research.

He says it is a complicated process, given people display various symptoms at different times during the illness.

He says the number of people displaying loss of taste and smell without any other symptoms is "very small", as a proportion of overall cases, and scientists had to decide how much of a difference it would make to the overall treatment.

He ends by referring to early research suggesting less than 0.5% of those who have died have displayed anosmia.

Scotland's health boards will step in to help care homes who are left short of staff struck down by Covid-19, national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch has vowed.

Prof Leitch tells BBC Radio Scotland that the NHS will be able to help because parts of its own service have been suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Drivetime's John Beattie asks about reports that some care home staff are terrified to be absent because of low pay and would knowingly continue working with symptoms.

"The salaries and economics of care home development are a step above my pay grade," Prof Leitch replies. "But let me be abundantly clear - anything that stops people staying off work, if they either have symptoms and/or a positive test, is wrong and we should do everything we can - government, local government and private providers - to make that not happen."

The issue has resurfaced after the Scottish government extended the amount of testing available for care home staff.

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Strategies must be in place to ensure staff off sick with Covid-19 can be replaced, a care home owner has said.

Dr Jane Douglas, the chief executive of Queens House Care Home in the Borders, explained it may be difficult to find adequate cover to ensure safe staffing levels.

She expressed concern that testing could result in many staff needing to self-isolate at home for up to 14 days - but accepted it was needed to ensure the safety of residents.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman today announced all care home staff could now be tested, regardless of whether they had symptoms or there is an outbreak at their place of work.

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Bosses at Scotland's largest single-site arts venue have warned of the long-term impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the culture sector.

Eden Court in Inverness said the arts would not "bounce back" overnight or return to "normal" once social distancing were lifted.

It said said the culture sector could take up to 24 months to recover, and would need government support.

In a submission to a Scottish government inquiry into the impact of the virus on culture and tourism, Eden Court said the pandemic represented the "largest risk" to its existence in its 44-year history.

Six-year-old Aidan McQueen has been praised for "bringing joy, happiness and relief" to many hard-up families after running a mile every day for the Spirit Aid charity.

The Glasgow boy was upset to hear that many of the city's children were going hungry and tells BBC Radio Scotland he started his runs "because the charity get food for other families and I wanted to help".

Mother Meghan adds: "At first, the target was to raise £100 and we thought we'd get that or a wee bit more with family, but very quickly we got a lot of support. The first couple of days, we had to encourage him to go out, but now he's getting up, ready and loving going out running.

"I can no longer keep up with him..Him and his dad have managed to run the mile in nine and a half minutes."

Charity lead Patrick Rolink says: "It is heartwarming - Patrick has made a difference to many people's lives. We have given food to families who have gone five or six weeks without any money."

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Dr Chris Smith explains Covid-19 is a multi-organ response and can affect the body in several ways.

This is why a small number of people may develop heart, lung and kidney problems.

The Naked Scientist says this opens the door to it spreading through different routes, with the genetic signature of coronavirus now being found in sewage works.

So you should "shut the loo before you flush," he adds.

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We’re expecting the UK government’s daily press conference in around five minutes, led by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

He’ll be joined by Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England.

You can follow live updates here.