Covid in Scotland: Contact tracers to prioritise 'high risk' cases

Contact tracers in Scotland will prioritise cases where there is a "high risk" of transmission, as soaring Covid rates put pressure on the system.

The Scottish government said calls will only be made to the most urgent cases, while texts will be used "more extensively" for cases deemed low risk.

Determining the priority level of a case will depend on individuals filling out contact tracing forms online.

Health secretary Humza Yousaf said it was a "practical approach".

It comes after NHS Grampian warned that the increase in cases meant it would not be able to trace the contacts of everyone who tests positive.

The health board said there had been a "dramatic increase" in the workload of its contact tracing teams.

On Thursday, the number of daily cases reported in Scotland surpassed 4,000 for the first time - although that fell to 3,823 on Friday and 3,108 on Saturday.

Saturday's figure accounted for 9.6% of all the tests analysed. The latest figures recorded a further three deaths of patients who had recently tested positive.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics said that Scotland continued to have the highest Covid rate in the UK last week, with about one in every 150 people thought to have the virus.

This equates to about 35,900 people.

At Friday's coronavirus briefing, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted the contact tracing system was "coping well" but acknowledged it was "under pressure" because of surging cases.

The Scottish government said the new contact tracing approach will allow workers to focus on the cases "most likely to lead to further transmission" of the virus.

It also said more staff were being recruited as part of efforts to "maximise the capacity" of contact tracing teams across health boards.

According to a Public Health Scotland report, sending text messages with advice about self-isolating and getting tested became the "default" from 18 June because of rising numbers of Covid-19 cases.

The tracing of secondary contacts has also been dropped.

Confirming the policy change, Mr Yousaf said the Test and Protect system was contacting "record numbers" of people each day and urged anyone who is contacted to self-isolate for 10 days.

Contact tracers will continue to phone many of those who have tested positive but there will be a focus on more complex, high-risk cases.

He said: "The shift in approach we are taking will mean more text messages going out and people getting online to report contacts and find information.

"This is a sensible and practical approach which will allow us to focus our contacting tracing efforts on the most high risk cases and prevent further spread of the virus."

The health secretary also urged everyone with a smartphone to download the Protect Scotland app.

He added: "If you test positive, you will receive a code that can be entered into the app, providing isolation notifications to people [who have also downloaded the app that] you have been in contact with.

"We continue to look holistically at the system to ensure its resilience, including supporting ongoing local recruitment and flexing additional workforce capacity within the National Contact Tracing Centre."

Scottish Conservative health spokeswoman Annie Wells said that the public was worried about the rising number of cases. She said it was "imperative that no case goes unforgotten through this new way of working".

Ms Wells added: "The SNP have already taken their eye off the ball with Test and Protect which simply can't happen again.

"A robust and effective system will play a critical role in helping to ensure people self-isolate as quickly as possible and give us the best chance of staying on track to ease restrictions over the summer." Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said the news was "an explicit admission that the SNP has failed to develop a robust test and protect system", which had "buckled under the pressure".

She said the development "risked our exit from the pandemic", adding that the government's "failure" was "a downright dereliction of duty".