Coronavirus: No current plans to close Scottish schools

Schools in Scotland will remain open for now but that policy will be kept "under review" as coronavirus is expected to spread.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also said it was currently "not appropriate" to cancel large-scale events in Scotland.

However, there will be an "increasing focus" on moving to the delay phase.

There have now been 23 confirmed coronavirus cases in Scotland, a rise of five from Sunday.

Ms Sturgeon said all the cases so far could be traced to international travel to affected areas, or to other confirmed cases.

Scotland and the UK remains in the "containment phase", but the first minister said there was an "increasing inevitability" of a significant outbreak.

She told a news conference in Edinburgh: "Increasingly, the focus of discussions is on the move into what is called the delay phase.

"That is when efforts switch to measures that will delay the spread of the virus, flatten the infection curve and reduce the numbers of people that are infected at any one time."

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The University of the West of Scotland has confirmed one person from its Lanarkshire campus in Hamilton has tested positive.

The Stewart and Stewart dental practice in Cumbernauld later said it had temporarily closed as a precaution after as positive case had been identified there.

There have also been two new positive tests in Lothian, and two in Shetland.

The first minister and Scotland's chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, took part in a Cobra meeting chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday morning.

Number 10 has said that measures to delay the virus's spread with "social distancing" will not be introduced yet.

However, UK ministers have accepted that the virus "is going to spread in a significant way".

The announcement from Number 10 came as Ireland's Six Nations rugby match in France on Saturday was postponed, following an earlier decision to postpone England's match in Italy.

The Wales game against Scotland in Cardiff is to go ahead as scheduled.

The 2020 Diabetes UK Professional Conference that was due to go ahead at the SEC in Glasgow from 18 March has been cancelled.

Diabetes UK said it "did not believe it would be right or responsible to proceed with holding the conference when the NHS is in such need of its expert workforce".

Ms Calderwood said the the public should not be reassured by the small numbers of cases in Scotland so far.

"This is what happened in England, there were even some days at the beginning of the outbreak where there were no new cases in England, we may have that as well.

"But the way this virus is transmitting and spreading I don't think we can take reassurance that the slowness is going to be anything other than building up."

Earlier, the Scottish government issued new guidance for workplaces aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus,

It urges routine cleaning of phones and keypads and warns against sharing food.

The central piece of advice is still to wash hands thoroughly and regularly.

As the number of cases of Coronavirus in Scotland continues to rise, the incidence of seasonal flu has tailed off significantly, according to analysis by Health Protection Scotland.

Dr Jim McMenamin, from the health body, said: "The flu season this year occurred earlier in the winter than in many previous seasons.

"Numbers of cases had already tailed off significantly before the international reporting of COVID-19."

But he added that it was difficult to infer any relationship between low current flu figures and the increased hand washing and awareness about sneezing and coughing publicised by the coronavirus outbreak.