NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday hit out at political rivals for claiming the Scottish Government covered up the coronavirus outbreak at the Nike conference in Edinburgh.

Last week a BBC investigation revealed that at least 25 people linked to the event at the city’s Hilton Carlton Hotel on February 26 and 27 had contracted the virus.

Over the weekend, it emerged that staff at two other firms had fallen ill after coming into contact with delegates from the Nike event.

One of the companies is a digital marketing business, understood to share a Glasgow office building with Nike, and the other is an Edinburgh kilt hire shop, which fitted 10 conference-goers.

On Monday, it was revealed Lloyds Banking Group had also held an event at the hotel at the same time.

None of the firms were approached by contact tracers.

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The First Minister faced another day of questioning over the event, after three tour guides who took delegates on hour-long walks of the Old Town came forward to say they, too ,had never encountered the incident team responsible.

Speaking at the Scottish Government’s daily briefing, Sturgeon revealed that six of the eight confirmed Scots Covid-19 cases connected to the Nike conference were attendees, while the other two were secondary contacts.

Sturgeon said the decision on who to contact was down to the contact tracers.

“If the experts think more people should have been contacted, or different people should have been contacted, there was nothing stopping them doing that because they judge what is required, as far as possible, to reduce the risk of onward transmission,” she said.

“It’s a very well-established system in Scotland. The public should have confidence in it.

“As we go into test, trace and isolate there will be different considerations about how we balance patient confidentiality and public interest because there will be different considerations at that stage than there were at the start when numbers were so low.”

Asked if there would be an inquiry into the Government’s response, the First Minister said she wasn’t “ruling anything out”.

She added: “I recognise the need for public assurance. Because information wasn’t put into the public domain didn’t mean there wasn’t a rigorous public health management of it, but I will, of course, continue to consider if further steps need to be taken.”

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Sturgeon also denied it was a “mistake” not to inform the public.

“I’m trying to be open and accepting of that,” she said. “There are very few aspects of dealing with this that are absolutely black and white and clear cut, and a lot of it is judgment.

“I accepted that at the outset and I accept now that sometimes we will get judgments wrong and I’m not saying that I think that was the case in this instance, but even in situations where I think the judgment is right, people will take a different view.

“We can have these debates and accept people will come to different judgments, but what I do take exception to, and I say this very bluntly, is the politicised accusation that comes from some quarters, not all, that this was some kind of cover-up, and I pose the questions ‘what for? why? what possible motivation?’ “Dealing with this has made me look at certain things differently and we will all get the chance to reflect on that.

“But you can come to a different judgement about an issue without always having to believe the worst about your opponents’ motivations.

“I’ve been guilty of that in the past, maybe it’s something I’ll try to get a bit different in the future. Yes, people are entitled to think we should have made a different judgment, but accept that we’re trying to make these judgments in good faith.”

The Nike conference was attended by more than 70 of the sports brand’s employees from around the world.

Labour’s shadow secretary of state for Scotland, Ian Murray, has accused the First Minister of a “dereliction of duty”.

He said: “It’s not a ‘politicised accusation’ to question why the Edinburgh public was kept in the dark about an outbreak in the heart of their city”.