HOSPITAL visiting in Scotland will resume again from April 26, the Health Secretary has said.
Jeane Freeman told the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh yesterday that, depending on the continued suppression of the virus, one visitor will be allowed per patient.
She said: “April 26 will not be a return to normal visiting, but it is I think an important step towards normality and will, I hope, be welcomed by health staff, by patients and by their loved ones.”
More funding will also be made available for digital visitation, Freeman said, but no figure was provided at the briefing.
She told the briefing that Scotland recorded eight deaths from coronavirus and 655 positive tests in the previous 24 hours.
This brings the death toll under this measure, of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days, to 7554.
Freeman said of the new positive tests, 162 were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area, 138 in Lothian and 134 were recorded in
Lanarkshire.
The daily test positivity rate was 2.9%, up from 2.7% on Thursday.
There were 397 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, down eight in 24 hours, and 35 patients were in intensive care, down three.
She also gave an update on vaccination figures, saying as of yesterday morning 2,066,460 people in Scotland had received their first dose, up 43,458 on Thursday.
A further 9335 people had a second dose, taking this total to 201,435.
She said 97% of those aged 65-69 had now received their first dose of the vaccine, 80% of those aged 60-64, 46% of 55-59 year olds and 36% of people aged 50-54.
Meanwhile, countries including France, Germany and Italy began resuming their vaccine programmes with the AstraZeneca jag – reversing earlier decisions to suspend them over blood clot concerns.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said the AstraZeneca vaccine was “safe and effective” and its benefits in preventing Covid-19 hospital admission and death greatly outweighed potential risks.
The EMA has, however, been unable to say definitively that the vaccine is not linked to “extremely rare” blood clots on the brain, of which there have been 18 reports among millions of people vaccinated.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have said that the jag is safe and have encouraged people to take up their vaccine appointments.
The WHO’s advisory committee on vaccine safety issued a formal statement yesterday saying the vaccine “continues to have a positive benefit-risk profile, with tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths across the world”.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here