Health experts looking at possible coronavirus 'cluster' in Glasgow area
A possible coronavirus cluster has been identified in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Giving the daily coronavirus figures, the First Minister said while no Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours, there have been 22 new cases.
She said 14 of these cases are in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board area, with a "possible cluster'' associated with a "particular location'' under investigation by the health board.
An incident management team meeting will take place on Wednesday afternoon, she said, giving an "assurance that all new positive cases are thoroughly investigated for any links'' and contacts will be traced.
Ms Sturgeon also warned it is unlikely immediate changes will be made to lockdown restrictions this week.
On Thursday, the First Minister will give an update on the route map out of lockdown to the Scottish Parliament.
She said the Scottish Government is "very likely to adopt a very cautious approach''.
"We have made very significant changes over the past three weeks, including the resumption of indoor hospitality and tourism, and it is still too early to be completely assured about the impact - or hopefully the absence of impact - of these,'' she said.
Ms Sturgeon added the Scottish Government plans to make "major changes'' - which have been previously announced - over the next three weeks.
Ministers hope children will be able to return to full-time schooling from August 11, with the aim of pausing the shielding system - with tougher restrictions on those with certain health conditions - from the end of this month.
"Ensuring that those changes can take place without raising the prevalence of the virus too far is not going to leave us very much room for many other immediate changes,'' the First Minister said.
While Ms Sturgeon said there may appear to be "anomalies'' in what is allowed and what is still not permitted under lockdown restrictions, she said there are "rational explanations'' for these.
But she stressed it is also necessary to consider the cumulative impact of all the changes that are made and "that we have to be sensible about the order in which we make changes so that we don't create a situation where we are doing too much too quickly and therefore giving the virus the chance to overwhelm us''.
The First Minister said some parts of the economy and some people could be "disappointed'' if the changes they want to be made do not happen in Thursday's review.
But she said she will announce, as far as possible, indicative dates in the future when other restrictions could be lifted, although this would be "conditional on continued suppression of the virus''.
The First Minister also used the briefing to announce changes to the publication of data related to coronavirus.
A report to be published by the Scottish Government on Wednesday shows in the last week more than 16 million items of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been distributed across Scotland - including almost 12 million gloves, three million masks and nearly one million aprons.
"In total, since March 1, more than 362 million items have been distributed,'' the First Minister said, saying the figures show the scale of the work being done to keep health and care workers safe.
The data will cover both health board and local authority areas, with "more detailed information''.
Ms Sturgeon added the new "dashboard'' will be able to "colour code local authority areas based on the proportion of neighbourhoods which exceed 55 confirmed cases per 100,000 over a seven day period''.
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