‘The evidence that Sturgeon is right on Covid’

New outbreaks of Covid-19 coronavirus in China, Australia and other countries show why Nicola Sturgeon’s cautious approach to relaxing the lockdown in Scotland is the correct one, says Angus Robertson.

Travellers returning from Spain must self-isolate (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

As we try to emerge from the coronavirus lockdown in Scotland, the international warning lights are flashing, with the global number of confirmed Covid-19 cases reaching more than 16 million, an increase by a million in just four days.

With news emerging from a doctor who diagnosed early infections in China confirming that local officials covered up the scale of the initial outbreak, clusters in China have led to 61 new cases recorded yesterday – the highest daily figure since April. In India, infections have reached a mammoth 1.4 million with 50,000 cases in one day.

Australia is grappling with renewed record infections. The southern state of Victoria reported 532 new cases and although Melbourne is half-way through a six-week lockdown, there is already talk of an extension.

Vietnam has closed the city of Da Nang to tourists, which corresponds with a warning by Scottish pilot Stephen Cameron who has returned home after two months on a ventilator in Vietnam.

He says that people should “not to be blasé about coronavirus” as the lockdown eases.

The Scottish Government has been correct to be cautious about the infection risk in Spain and re-apply quarantine requirements for returning tourists. Sadly Scottish Tories have begun jumping on passing political bandwagons rather than unequivocally supporting public health priorities.

It would be to everybody’s benefit for the UK Government to publish the relevant public health data. In the meantime, we all need to keep our guard up to avoid the pandemic spikes we are seeing in other countries.

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