Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 10 June 2020.
What certainly happens reliably, week in and week out, is that Jackson Carlaw makes unsubstantiated claims about the handling of the Covid-19 outbreak. Week in and week out, I, the health secretary and the entire Scottish Government get on with the job of tackling the outbreak, which partly—together with the collective efforts of people the length and breadth of the country—is why we are now seeing a decline in the number of cases, in the number of people in hospital, in the number of people in intensive care units, and in the number of people who are dying, including in care homes. That is the progress that we are making.
I am not sure how much Jackson Carlaw knows, or bothers to find out, about how things actually work on the ground, but when we say that 50,000 care home staff have to be tested, of course there has to be a programme of work over time to make that happen. The processes have to be put in place, and the resources—which are in place—have to be put in place.
That work is on-going. We will see it in the data that is published later today. We will see progress week in and week out as we publish the data. That will show that this Government is getting on with the job of tackling the virus, which is exactly what people across the country want to see. I do not think that they want to see politicians engaging simply in party politicking—which is what Jackson Carlaw does.
