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小 發表於 2021-1-4 16:32 只看該作者
Covid in Scotland: New strain of virus 'accelerating' spread
Covid in Scotland: New strain of virus 'accelerating' spread
The next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid, the first minister has warned.
Nicola Sturgeon said the new variant of the virus was "accelerating spread" across Scotland.
"If you first foot someone today, or hug/kiss/handshake them HNY, you are putting yourself, others and the NHS at risk," she tweeted.
A further 2,539 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed on Friday.
The number is slightly down on Thursday's figure, but Ms Sturgeon said cases numbers were still "worryingly high".
Daily confirmed cases have reached record highs on each of the previous three days, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.
The percentage of positive cases also reached 14.4% on Wednesday - the highest it has been since the second wave of the pandemic
began in the summer.
Ms Sturgeon tweeted: "Today's case numbers are worryingly high again. The new variant is accelerating spread.
"PLEASE do not visit other people's homes just now, even today - if you first foot someone today, or hug/kiss/handshake them HNY,
you are putting yourself, others & the NHS at risk."
She said the "vaccine cavalry" was on the way, offering "real hope for 2021", but she added: "With this new variant, the next
few weeks may be the most dangerous we've faced since Mar/April.
"We must act together to suppress it, to save lives and protect the NHS. Folded hands stick with it."
A new study by London's Imperial College has found that the new variant of Covid-19 is "hugely" more transmissible than
the virus's previous version.
It concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.
The UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start
falling.
The Scottish government's most recent estimate of the R number in Scotland has put it between 0.9 and 1.1.
Emma Thomson, a professor of infectious disease at the University" onclick="tagshow(event)" class="t_tag">University of Glasgow, said it was important to get people vaccinated
quickly.
The professor, who has been working on the sequencing of the new Covid mutation, told the BBC that lockdown was not controlling
the infection "on its own".
"At least we come in armed into the new year with two vaccines which are highly effective at preventing severe disease.
We have that," she said.
"We need to roll it out now to add to the public health measures."
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