The recent rise in cases of coronavirus in Scotland may have "peaked", a public health expert has claimed. Dr Kimberly Marsh , a consultant healthcare scientist at Public Health Scotland (PHS), said Covid-19 did not appear to follow seasonal patterns such as illnesses like flu. Advertisement Advertisement Sign up to our Politics newsletter Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.
The latest data from PHS, for the week ending July 14, had cases at 1,130 – down from 1,245 the previous week. Dr Marsh told BBC Radio Scotland 's The Sunday Show: "Our data in Scotland shows that there has been an increase in Covid-19 and this has been really seen since mid April, with a steeper increase in June. "There are, however, some early signals that this wave may have peaked, but our data are still provisional for this week.
" She said there could be a number of reasons behind the summer increase in cases, including the variant known as KP.3. The Covid vaccine is still effective against the new variant, she said.
Discussing the latest advice for those feeling ill, Dr Marsh said: "If you're feeling unwell, if you have symptoms, you should avoid contact with others until you're better and fever-free." Good hand hygiene and ventilation are still important to protect people at risk of the most serious outcomes, she said. It comes as shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt apologised for failures in the UK’s pandemic preparations highlighted by the Covid inquiry.
In its first report, published on Thursday, the inquiry found the former government had “failed” the public due to “significant flaws” in preparing for a pandemic. Advertisement Advertisement On Sunday, Mr Hunt acknowledged that as health secretary between 2012 and 2018, he had been “part of a groupthink where we over-prepared for pandemic flu, we didn’t think about other types of pandemic”. “I apologise unreservedly to the families,” he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
"That was the most terrible tragedy what happened to this country during Covid.” He also urged the new government to take up the recommendations of Baroness Heather Hallett’s 217-page report. The report said the inquiry had “no hesitation” in concluding the “processes, planning and policy of the civil contingencies structures within the UK government and devolved administrations and civil services failed their citizens”.
Among the problems identified by the inquiry were a failure to plan for the pandemic that actually occurred, with too much focus on pandemic flu, “labyrinthine” structures for emergency planning, and a “failure to learn sufficiently” from planning exercises. In her recommendations, Lady Hallett called for a pandemic strategy to be developed and tested at least every three years, with a UK-wide crisis response exercise. She said the government and political leaders should be properly held to account on a regular basis “for systems of preparedness and resilience”.
Lady Hallett also said external experts from outside Whitehall and government should be brought in to challenge and guard against “the known problem of groupthink”. Advertisement Advertisement Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said ministers would “carefully consider” Lady Hallett’s recommendations, adding it was a “top priority” for his government. He said: “The government’s first responsibility is to keep the public safe, and as Prime Minister I am personally committed to each and every family that lost loved ones, and whose lives were changed forever, that this Government will learn the lessons from the inquiry.
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