THE number of coronavirus cases linked to a Lanarkshire call centre has risen to 24 since Wednesday, the First Minister has said.
An outbreak was confirmed by NHS Lanarkshire on Sunday at the Sitel premises in Eurocentral business park near Bellshill.
Staff at the call centre help to trace contacts of positive Covid-19 cases for NHS England.
A member of staff from the firm said on Monday that adherence to social distancing within the centre was “lax”.
During her regular coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh on Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon said the number of cases had risen by four in the past 24 hours, with 17 coming from staff in the centre and a further seven people having tested positive after coming into contact with workers.
Sturgeon said: “Given that the virus can have a long incubation period, intensive work is still ongoing to ensure that all possible chains of transmission from this outbreak are being closed down.
“I’m very grateful to everyone who is working very hard as part of that effort.”
The First Minister said provisional figures indicate four more cases were reported in the NHS Lanarkshire health board area between Wednesday and Thursday.
On Wednesday, Sturgeon listed five locations attended by staff from the call centre.
These are Owen’s Bar in Coatbridge; the Railway Tavern and Merlins Bar in Motherwell; Costa Coffee in Carfin, and End Clothing in Glasgow.
Speaking on Thursday, the First Minister did not say if any other places could be caught up in the outbreak but she added “this is potentially still a moving picture”.
She said: “There is still contact tracing going on, there are still new contacts being identified and traced so it is possible that there will be other locations identified but it may not be the case that other locations that are identified are thought to be significant enough in the risk matrix to name.
“If that is the case then we would add anything at the appropriate time.”
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