4. My thoughts are with those who have been affected by the derailment in Stonehaven, and I am thankful for the efforts of the emergency services.

The return of pupils to school means that there will be a whole new phase of interaction between large groups of people. I want to ask the First Minister about plans to protect those who are working and studying in schools. The Scottish Government has put in place the test and protect scheme. However, last week, the city of Aberdeen went from isolated incidents to a full regional lockdown in a matter of hours. Can the First Minister tell me why test and protect was unable to contain the virus?

Schools should be among the last institutions to close in the event of an outbreak. Is test and protect ready to protect our schools?

I will come on to schools specifically in a second.

This is part of the learning journey that we are all on. Test and protect on its own will not stop coronavirus outbreaks; we are all principally responsible for doing that. We are the first line of defence—if the virus gets through us, test and protect is the second line of defence. It is important that we all understand that, and that we communicate it to our constituents.

Test and protect has worked very effectively in Aberdeen. Without it, rather than dealing with an outbreak—albeit a large and complex one—that is, I hope, on its way to being contained, we would by now already be dealing with widespread community transmission.

The number of contacts that have been traced, and the speed at which they have been traced and contacted, is a credit to the work of test and protect. I am not complacent about that—as First Minister, one of the questions in my mind is whether, if we have several outbreaks at the same time, we have sufficient resources to deal with that. We are looking all the time at how we strengthen and improve the resilience of those arrangements, but I want to stress how well the test and protect scheme has worked, and is working, in Aberdeen, and give due credit to everybody who is involved in it.

Part of the function of test and protect is to give us intelligence and information on where an outbreak has started and what the chains of transmission are. That is why we were able, so early in the outbreak, to say that it had in all likelihood originated in the night-time economy, which is why we took the difficult decision to close down the hospitality sector.

We should all take some confidence and assurance—albeit that that might seem counterintuitive—from how test and protect has worked, although we should not be complacent about the challenges that lie ahead in that regard.

In schools, test and protect will be available to any member of staff or young person who is symptomatic. On top of that, there will be surveillance through data gathering, which will, in the autumn, be supplemented by surveillance testing in schools.

In addition, the Deputy First Minister will, in his statement to Parliament this afternoon—I will not go into all the detail, as he will cover it—announce a further expansion of the availability of testing in schools to give greater assurance to teachers and other staff who work in our schools.

My final point—Willie Rennie and the Presiding Officer will probably be getting frustrated at the length of this answer—is a difficult one for me to communicate. In all likelihood, we will see outbreaks of coronavirus in schools—in particular, perhaps, in secondary schools. The important thing is how we contain those and make sure that they are properly dealt with. I give the chamber an assurance that that is an issue of priority focus for the Government.

I am sure that the First Minister understands that that is why people are very nervous about what might happen following the reopening of schools.

People are equally nervous about the situation as regards universities. Two weeks ago, I asked the First Minister whether she would agree to all international students being tested on arrival in the country. The policy was supported by one of her scientific advisers, Devi Sridhar. We want those students to come here, but we want them to be safe, too. The First Minister said that she was considering the proposal, but I warned her that time was running out.

We are two weeks closer to students returning. Can the First Minister tell me what has been decided? Will all international students be tested?

The First Minister:

I cannot give Willie Rennie the conclusion of those discussions, because the issue is still under consideration. I have an acute understanding of how quickly the virus can spread and, therefore, of how urgent such decisions are. However, I also understand that it is important to get them right so that they are sustainable and so that we can encourage and obtain buy-in on the part of those people we expect to comply with such measures.

With the university and college sector, we are considering the matter carefully, and we will set out more detail on it shortly. As I think that Willie Rennie knows, we listen very carefully to the advice of our advisory group. Devi Sridhar, whom he cited two weeks ago and again today, is a member of that group, and we are paying very close attention to the recommendations that the group makes.