Coronavirus / Around 60 folk self-isolating in connection with latest Covid cases
This follows the confirmation of three new cases last weekend which appear to all be unconnected, including a school pupil at Whiteness primary school and a fire fighter from Brae.
Local senior officer for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Iain Macleod confirmed that 12 retained fire fighters from the Brae station are “currently self-isolating in line with national advice and guidelines after one tested positive for COVID-19”.
“Brae Fire Station and its two fire appliances have since undergone deep cleaning by specialist contractors to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Macleod added.
Last week, Shetland Islands Council said that 17 pupils at Whiteness primary school as well as their class teacher and support staff had been told to stay home and self-isolate.
NHS Shetland said that for patient confidentiality reasons they were not able to say how many people were self-isolating for each of the three individual cases.
However, a spokesperson added: “We can say that the total number of people who we have contact traced and who are self isolating for all three cases from this past weekend is 63.”
This total number does not include those who are self-isolating because they believe they are displaying symptoms of the virus, or waiting for test results to return.
Shetland has not had any new cases recorded in the last five days, and the total number of confirmed cases stands at 60.
Meanwhile with much stricter restrictions in place as of this week, and the number of newly confirmed cases rising rapidly across Scotland, there are renewed calls to treat the islands differently.
Scottish secretary Alister Jack said on Wednesday: “The R number is very high in certain parts of Scotland, very low in other parts of Scotland. I would feel sorry for the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland, for instance, on this household ban because there’s very little prevalence of the virus up there.”
A request to the Scotland Office to clarify this statement and to explain how a different approach for the Scottish islands communities would work in practice remains unanswered.
Anyone with Covid symptoms should book a test by filing in the referral form on the NHS Shetland website at www.shb.scot.nhs.uk/ (click ‘self refer for Covid test if you have symptoms’)
Covid-19 symptoms are:
- New loss or change in sense of taste or smell
- New fever
- New continuous cough
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