Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 03 February 2021
This has been an excellent debate, with helpful and well-argued contributions from across the political divide. I, too, congratulate Mark Ruskell and the Scottish Green Party on their initiative in securing the debate.
The Covid-19 pandemic has placed tremendous strain and responsibility on all our hard-working front-line NHS and care workers. The vaccination programme, as well as being a triumph for British and international—[Inaudible.]—has required exceptional organisational and administrative expertise in its roll-out. As the motion recognises,
“an effective test, trace and isolate regime will be needed”
not just immediately, but for some time into the future.
The key issue in the debate, as far as I am concerned, is the variety of barriers to self-isolation: money worries, insecure employment, suitable accommodation and caring responsibilities. To be clear, self-isolation is a key and crucial element of any Covid recovery strategy. If quarantine/self-isolation is not carried out effectively, for all the reasons that I have just highlighted, we are weakening one of the key pillars of the plan, which will, of course, put back Covid recovery and renewal and will extend lockdown restrictions for longer than they need to be. Earlier this week, in reply to a question from Bob Doris, the cabinet secretary outlined how the Scottish Government is supporting people to self-isolate. As we have heard, eligibility for the self-isolation support grant has now been extended to those who earn the real living wage or lower.
Members made extremely useful contributions to the debate. I will focus, first, on that of Mark Ruskell, who made the point that our vaccination programme is not a strategy in itself. He also quoted Professor Jason Leitch, who has said that we might have to live with Covid for some years to come. Of course, we will need a strong self-isolation strategy for that reason. Mr Ruskell also quoted academic research that suggested that 38 per cent of individuals were not isolating for the recommended number of days.
The cabinet secretary said that we have more to do, which is, of course, true. She said that, if people need help, they should be able to access it, and she flagged up the national assistance service and the helpline. She gave a good example of best practice when she spoke about the delivery of breast milk from a new mother. The key will be for us to share such best practice.
Rachael Hamilton thanked our front-line staff and mentioned the military, members of which have worked extremely effectively in the current crisis.
Pauline McNeill made the point that everyone should be able to afford to self-isolate. Many people have to make a choice between compliance with Covid rules versus financial destruction. Ms McNeill said that isolation must work effectively, otherwise our testing and tracing strategy will not be as effective as it could be. More support is needed, particularly for those who fall on the wrong side of the economic divide.
Alex Cole-Hamilton made an important point about welcoming the testing of asymptomatic people. He again mentioned the dilemma that disadvantaged families face, between following the rules and feeding their own families.
I am conscious of the time, Presiding Officer, so I will conclude my remarks. As many members have testified, we need to discuss the broader economic and social context of child poverty in Scotland. Even before Covid, our levels of such poverty and social isolation were high and were projected to rise.
I hope that members will support Labour’s amendment, which calls on the Scottish Government to make
“full use of Scotland’s testing capacity to deliver mass asymptomatic testing”.
We need to keep the virus pinned down. Vaccination is an important part of our strategy, but the test, trace and isolate approach should also be part of the mix. Together, we can defeat this foe and then rebuild our economy and communities.
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