First minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced that the Covid self-isolation period will be cut from 10 to seven days in Scotland, bringing the country in line with rules in England.
Ms Sturgeon also said that Scots who test positive with a lateral flow test will no longer have to take a PCR test to confirm the result, with the changes coming into force from midnight.
The SNP leader said she wanted to see “sustainable” ways of dealing with Omicron and other variants – but warned the latest wave still the potential to “overwhelm” the NHS in Scotland.
Strict limits on large gatherings and table service rules for hospitality will remain in force across Scotland for now, said Ms Sturgeon, adding that she expected restrictions to remain until at least 17 January.
One in 20 people in Scotland now have Covid, according to the Scottish government’s latest weekly figures. “Covid is significantly more widespread than at any stage in the pandemic,” said Ms Sturgeon.
She said the increasing pressure on the NHS was being managed by a “depleted and ever-more exhausted workforce”, as the number of Omicron cases continues to grow.
The first minister said the encouraging evidence that Omicron leads to a milder illness, particularly in people under the age of 60, “does appear to be strengthening”. But she said the highly-infectious variant was “creating a volume of cases … which still has the potential to overwhelm us”.
The first minister announced that 16,103 new cases of the virus were recorded across Scotland on Tuesday, with 1,223 Covid patients in hospital – up 71 from the previous day.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross welcomed the “sensible and proportionate” changes to testing and self-isolation rules – but challenged Ms Sturgeon on why it took so long to cut the time spent at home to seven days.
Ms Sturgeon said her perspective had changed because of the “burden” on the economy of so many staff absences. “Last week I did not think it was the case that the benefits of changing self-isolation would outweigh the risk. The higher the transmission now, the bigger the burden of self-isolation on the economy, has changed that judgement.”
New data breaking down hospital admissions in Scotland – including analysis on those admitted to hospital because of the virus, along with Covid cases detected in patients in hospital for other reasons – will be released on Friday, Ms Sturgeon said.
Scots who test positive for Covid will be able to leave self-isolation on day seven if they return two negative lateral flow tests and do not have a fever. Those self-isolating will be asked to take a lateral flow test no earlier than day six of isolation and a second at least 24 hours later.
Ms Sturgeon also made changes to the isolation protocol for household contacts who are under 18 years and four months old or who are fully vaccinated with three doses. For this group, contacts will be asked to take a lateral flow test each day for seven days and self-isolate if one test is positive.
Earlier on Wednesday, the UK Health Security Agency said that from 11 January, asymptomatic people in England who test positive from a lateral flow test will no longer require a confirmatory PCR test.
