Scotland must ensure coronavirus test-and-trace actually works – John McLellan

As the relaxation of the lockdown, alcohol and hot weather combine to cause mayhem, the Scottish Government must ensure its test-and-trace system is effective in stopping the spread of the Covid-19 coroanvirus, writes John McLellan.

Smoke billows from a lock-up set on fire in Saughton Park

After ten weeks of lockdown, some exuberance was only to be expected when the rules began to be eased at the end of last week, but the heady mix of a rediscovered sense of freedom, the hot weather and alcohol has predictably not been without problems.

Parks officers reported large gatherings in most of the city’s open spaces and the pictures showed that for a significant number of the people the nuances of maximum numbers, households and what constitutes two metres is no longer a consideration.

But for a small minority it became an excuse to indulge in old-fashioned wanton vandalism, like it was Bonfire Night 2017. OK, so maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the fire-raising at Saughton Park was serious and could easily have ended in tragedy.

Fire seems to have been a theme, and at Meadowfield Park off Arthur’s Seat, the Fire Brigade and police were called to deal with large gangs of youths and to extinguish fires in bone-dry conditions after incidents which started on Friday and continued into Monday night.

As drunkenness increased, residents reported abuse being shouted at walkers, bottles being smashed, tree branches ripped down for firewood, aerosols being thrown onto fires to explode, and all within close proximity to homes.

On Monday morning, neighbours were out dousing smouldering tree trunks and by evening police were again called as intimidatory behaviour escalated.

Elsewhere, the park across from our house was exceptionally busy all weekend but although thankfully free of obvious anti-social behaviour there was as plenty evidence of the Phase 1 lockdown rules not so much being bent as completely ignored.

Young people did what young people do and got together and I’m pretty sure most were from more than two households. Barbecues where no-one shares food? If you believe everyone will stick to that you’ll be expecting Santa Claus this Christmas.

Maybe it’s the confusion caused by different rules in different parts of the country, but the complexities of multi-phased relaxation means the genie is out the bottle and the police will be in no position to replace the cork, no matter what First Minister Nicola Sturgeon might say.

As the police are the first to point out, their job is only possible through consent, and the only reason lockdown measures were generally well observed was not because the First Minister decreed it so but because the statistics told a grim bedtime story and people genuinely feared for their lives and those of their nearest and dearest.

The Catch 22 is that failure to comply with controls could increase the death toll, but rigid adherence will only be maintained if the fear is real because the death toll is rising. Then it will be too late. The virus is still widespread, but without an effective test-and-tracing system significant further easing of lockdown could be accompanied by death rates experienced in April, or worse.

Semi-lockdown is a recipe for confusion so it might be all very well for the First Minster to lecture us on the need to follow new guidelines to the letter, but she has to meet her side of the bargain by getting the test-and-tracing system fully up to speed. And keeping it there.

Yet Sunday saw the lowest number of tests since the new drive started at the end of April, with only 2,729 tests carried out in Scotland, nearly half the previous week’s number and despite capacity for 15,000. There has been no plausible explanation for this, but the evidence from more successful containment strategies elsewhere is that testing-and-tracking is an essential tool for minimising spread.

Nor is it clear that keeping schools, which provide young people with not just an education but much-needed structure to their days, closed is an effective means of containment.

If the Government is confused the rest of us have no chance, so the difference of opinion between Ms Sturgeon and Health Minister Jeane Freeman over advice about transmission from asymptomatic people was unhelpful to say the least.

Nor was public confidence boosted by a refusal to release details of information exchanges between UK and Scottish medical experts, or the claim that ministers did not receive any written briefings from key advisers.

There is indeed still danger everywhere, but while we are told the experts have learned a lot in the last two months, there is clearly a long way to go.

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