Health chief warns ‘we need to be even more careful’ as we move to phase two of Covid-19 route map
Andrew Hirst
Shetland’s health chief has said the battle against Covid-19 is “moving in the right direction” – but warned that it was important to stay focussed.
Michael Dickson, chief executive at NHS Shetland, said in a Facebook broadcast last night (Wednesday) that the number of cases were reducing – and he expected there would soon be days when no deaths would be reported on consecutive days.
He said there had been a “significant reduction” of cases in Scotland.
Although, NHS Shetland reported a positive case last Wednesday, the official figure has remained unchanged at 54 for eight weeks.
This is because the positive test was done by an independent lab for a Shetland Gas Plant worker – and came back negative when the NHS did its own follow-up test.
Mr Dickson said he was not sure the case would ever show in the official figures but that’s not a “big issue”, as the NHS had done “everything we need to do” for the patient.
He said that while “things are moving in the right direction” – the move to phase two of the route map, which is likely to be announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today (Thursday), was a crucial time.
“Phase two when things start to release a little bit more and we have to be even more careful,” he said.
“Because it’s about how we adjust to what this feels like. And It’s really easy for us to default back to our normal.
“So, I just want everyone to think about the impact of how they’re going sustain the important issues. social distancing, hand hygiene, good cough hygiene and are you aware of what the symptoms are so that if you start to experience them you can ask for a test early.”
