HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman has reported that 406 of Scotland's adult care homes have reported cases of coronavirus - around 37% of the country's total.
Freeman, leading the daily Scottish Covid-19 briefing, announced the figures while highlighting that the safety and wellbeing of Scotland's care workers are as “important to me as workers in our health service are”.
Speaking on care workers, she said: "I want to be absolutely clear, you are as important to me as workers in our health service are. I'm determined to get you what you need to do your job as you care for others.
"Earlier this week, I reminded NHS boards that social care workers have always been included in key worker testing, and asked that boards ensure that they have good systems in place for giving social care workers access to tests.
"I am pleased that we have had reports of progress made across a range of boards, although there is of course still work to do.
"For example, in NHS Lanarkshire, they have reported that 160 care workers or their households have been tested in just the last two days.
"As of Friday, a total of over 8000 health and social care workers or their households across Scotland have been tested."
She also announced that the Scottish Government has agreed with Cosla that people working in adult social care will be paid at least the real living wage.
It is equal to an immediate 3.3% pay increase, backdated from April 1, to at least £9.60 an hour.
Freeman said: "The measures we are announcing in partnership with Cosla today will ensure all people providing adult social care receive the real living wage for every hour worked with immediate effect, rather than having to wait until later in the year."
The pay increase applies for all hours worked, including sleep-overs and hours worked by personal assistants.
The Scottish Government is also to provide funding to third sector and independent providers specifically to ensure staff receive sick pay if they are off work ill or because they are self-isolating.
Figures show that approximately 4.5% of NHS Scotland staff - 7,406 workers - were absent on Saturday for reasons relating to coronavirus.
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