1. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce the transmission of Covid-19 as NHS services resume. (S5T-02293)

As we remobilise our NHS, the chief nursing officer’s expert group on nosocomial transmission has made three important sets of recommendations. First, in addition to testing all staff connected to a suspected nosocomial outbreak, we will now test on a weekly basis staff working in specialist cancer units, in long-term care of the elderly and in long-stay mental health wards. Boards will be asked to start that additional testing from 8 July.

Secondly, in hospitals and care homes for adults, face masks will now be worn by staff who have contact with patients or residents—that is, all staff who have contact with patients or residents— and out-patients, day-case attendances and visitors will be asked to wear a face covering.

That new measure is designed to reduce the risk of transmission from the person who is wearing the mask or face covering.

Guidance on that for health boards and employers will issue this week and will be effective from 29 June.

Thirdly, enhanced cleaning and maintenance regimes will be implemented in areas of high patient volume and in areas in which surfaces are frequently touched. Again, that will be implemented from this week, and across our health boards from 29 June.

In the interest of the safety of patients and staff, understandably, not all health services can be resumed at this stage. Will the cabinet secretary outline the best way for members of the public to access reliable health information?

We have published on the Scottish Government website a list containing “Coronavirus (COVID-19): framework for decision making” and

“Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design: the framework for NHS Scotland”, which gives an indication of the phases of that exercise. The first meeting of the recovery group, which I will chair, will take place this coming Monday.

In addition to that, there is information across all our health boards about all the initial phase 1—that is, until the end of July—services that are being restarted or increased until the end of July, and boards will be commissioned to produce additional remobilisation plans that will run from the beginning of August right through to the end of March next year. The recovery group will consider that, and those board plans will also be published as they are agreed.

Will the cabinet secretary confirm that the face coverings that visitors to health and care settings will be expected to wear are simply coverings and not medical-grade masks?

Mr Torrance is absolutely right. Staff in health and social care will wear medical-grade masks, and out-patients attending for day-case procedures and visitors will wear face coverings along the lines that have been recommended most recently for those using transport and entering other areas where physical distancing is difficult.

I thank the cabinet secretary for her response to Mr Torrance. Given that we know that those carrying Covid-19 can be asymptomatic while contagious, at what point does the Scottish Government intend to widen testing to all staff working in our NHS facilities such as hospitals?

I am grateful to Ms Johnstone for that additional question. The nosocomial group, which is chaired by Professor Jacqui Reilly, is a group of experts including Professor Tom Evans—who is part of our chief medical officer’s Covid-19 advisory group—and other experts in antimicrobial resistance and infection prevention and control. At this point, their recommendation is not to widen testing to other areas of our NHS but to introduce it in the areas that I have described—that is, in areas in which they believe that the risk of nosocomial infection is higher and in areas in which there are particularly vulnerable groups or cohorts of patients, such as specialist cancer units. However, the group also recommends that we continuously review that; so it may be that, in time, its advice will change and it will recommend widening the testing to other cohorts of our NHS staff. At this point, however, the group’s expert and clinical advice is to focus it in the way that I have described.

What measures will be used to screen patients for Covid-19 prior to and on admission?

The polymerase chain reaction test will be used. Health boards are working out how far in advance of the admission date for, for example, elective surgery people will be asked to self-isolate, as well as the detail of how to get the test to the individual, and at what point, in advance of their planned elective procedure. Once the boards have agreed the national position across our health service, I will make sure that Monica Lennon, other party spokespeople and, of course, the Health and Sport Committee know.