Coronavirus in Edinburgh: 53 new Covid-19 cases reported in Lothians
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A further 53 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Edinburgh and the Lothians, with 267 new cases across Scotland.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed the figures during her daily briefing on Tuesday afternoon.
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Hide AdBut she stressed that because of a backlog with processing test results in labs, these figures will include a lot more results from swabs taken in the past few days.
Ms Sturgeon said today that she has been in talks with the UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, about the backlog and hopes this will work through the system shortly.
One more person who tested positive for Covid-19 has died, taking the death toll in Scotland to 2,500.
Ms Sturgeon also said rules in parts of the west of Scotland banning visits between households appear to be suppressing virus transmission.
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Hide AdWhen asked whether similar restrictions would be inevitable in the Lothians, National Clinical Director, professor Jason Leitch, said: “It is up to the people of Lothian to get these numbers down and their individual behaviours will do that.”
He referred to examples of outrbeaks in Aberdeen and Dumfries and Galloway and stressed it is “not necessarily a wave across the central belt.”
Of the latest 267 coronavirus cases reported, 101 are in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board, 59 in Lanarkshire, 53 in Lothian and 13 in Ayrshire and Arran. The remaining 41 cases are spread across the remaining seven health board areas.
Ms Sturgeon also reiterated calls for people across Scotland to download the new Protect Scotland contact tracing app, to help combat the spread of coronavirus.