‘of new ‘ of new cases ‘ef new cases every day, the number of new cases every day, the number of new cases every day, the numberof number of new cases every day, the number of hospitalisations both to general wards and intensive care and of course the number of deaths. what that tells us is that very slowly we are seeing a gradual decline in the numberof are seeing a gradual decline in the number of those cases and that is very encouraging. but i emphasise, it has been a very slow decline. when you use the data to try to calculate where we are both in terms of new infections across the country but this all—important r number, there is insufficient confidence to say it is sufficiently below that magical one number to be able to say any significant change in the restrictions we are enduring right i'iow restrictions we are enduring right now would not lead us back into the exponential growth. that is the danger. that we relax things too early, make the changes too significantly, but the message begins to change and that r number begins to change and that r number

begins to change and that r number begins to grow and from that the numberof begins to grow and from that the number of cases begins to grow, the number of cases begins to grow, the numberof number of cases begins to grow, the number of hospitalisations begins to grow and the number of deaths begin to grow. we have sufficient confidence we have sufficient headroom to make sure that any changes we make don't impact on the overall rate of growth. i want to bring in the health secretary on trace, track and isolate. as we start to ease restrictions and any easing of restrictions and any easing of restrictions will have an impact on the r, but the lower your baseline, the r, but the lower your baseline, the more headroom you have to cope with that. the more important it is to have the test, trace, isolate infrastructure in place to identify any outbreaks and try to suppress them straightaway. so any outbreaks and try to suppress them straightaway. 50 another really important part of what we're doing right now is building very rapidly that capacity and capability of the trace, test, isolate. iask the health secretary to say a few words

about their work on that front. thank you, first minister. there are a numberof elements thank you, first minister. there are a number of elements to creating the delivery of a trace, test, isolate strategy. ramping up testing capacity. we will be at 8000 tests a day in nhs labs by the middle of this week but we need to increase that further, so the work is under way to get us to 15,500 tests a day through those routes. we need to increase our teams of contract traces. we do that in two ways, by oui’ traces. we do that in two ways, by our local health protection teams, identifying how many more people locally they can bring in but also by the national advertising campaign, which will begin tomorrow, to invite people to come and join us as contact tracers. the scaling up of the existing digital tools in scotland that we used to track infections, so that we can make best

use infections, so that we can make best use of that as an aid to contractual racing. and they really important work that needs to go on to identify the support that we need to put in place to help people when we ask them to isolate. so all of that work is under way them to isolate. so all of that work is underway and them to isolate. so all of that work is under way and it is absolutely essential to any easement of the measures of lockdown. thanks. can i go to the scotsman now? thank you, first minister. we understand from reports there is going to be a 5—step coronavirus alert system set up by the uk government, controlled by a joint bio—security centre. is that your understanding and world that have any impact on the process going forward in scotland? and can i ask the health secretary, earlier today you are asked about guidance that means that patients without coronavirus can be discharged from hospitals to care homes. is that an a cce pta ble hospitals to care homes. is that an acceptable risk and will be guidance

be changed? on the guidance point i will come to that in a second. the alert system you speak about, that is the longer term plan that the prime minister is going to set out tonight or at least alluded to tonight. i'm not sure of all the detail will be set out tonight was that we haven't yet seen the full detail of that so i can't really say whether it is a plan we would sign up whether it is a plan we would sign up to or not. we will certainly consider it carefully, take expert advice. it may be that we sign up to the general principles with the understanding the phrasing and timing of the different steps will be different but i will be able to comment more on that when i have seen more of the detail than i have right now. on the bio—security centre, that is something that is under discussion. it's about the data centre that would allow for us to make sure that data was being fed in so that we could track the virus. that is certainly something the scottish government will be talking to the uk government will be talking to the uk government and other devolved administrations about being a part

of. maybe grigore can say a word about that and then to the health secretary. i think anything that gives us more information and more evidence, such as the way that we can collate data as the way that we can collate data as four nations across the uk is something we would be interested in exploring. the proposals are still fairly new to us. i think we need to understand the detail of the much, much more before we can give any detail. it's of interest to be able to utilise that learning across the four nations. in terms of the alert system, there are companies... we need to have more detail about how that would work in practice before we would be able to make any firm commitment to that. as i say, the principles of it are certainly worth exploring just now. thank you. bloom at the guidance i was asked about this morning was draft guidance that was published on our website in error because it hadn't had clinical

and governance sign off. we will finish that work in the guidance will then be published very shortly. but the key point that i am being asked about here is what happens with patients discharged from hospital to a care home? now, we have been very clear that if the patient is in hospital because they had the virus, then they would give two negative tests before discharge. if they were in hospital for another reason but are being discharged to a ca re reason but are being discharged to a care home, then they should give a negative test and be isolated in the ca re negative test and be isolated in the care home for 14 days. the key issue here is whilst the test is important, so is really effective infection prevention and control in the care home, with staff who have the care home, with staff who have the right kind of ppe, the confidence to use that ppe appropriately in the training to

undertake high level quality infection prevention and control. it is all of those elements together that serve to break those transmission bridges that the first minister talked about. and that is the work that we are working very ha rd the work that we are working very hard on with our directors of public health, our local primary care teams and, of course, in consultation with scottish care. alistair grant from the herald? thank you. the snp mp angus mcneill says the border with england should be policed if lockdown measures are lifted down south. he said for the good of both populations, the scottish border should be close to day—trippers. is there something you would agree with and is any policing presence at the border something scotland has considered if divergence occurs? i have not seen those comments, i've been, as you can imagine, a bit busy

today. the chief constable was stood here on friday and explained the situation around the border. he used the example of different drink—drive limits that already exist north and south of the border. the police are perfectly used to policing in an appropriate way along the border. i would stress that i think although we have to wait and see, i would think in the detail of the positions between scotland and the rest of the uk as of tonight, the differences will be minor. obviously, we will see how things develop but all of us have to be guided by the evidence and we have to look at the implications of that as we go. as i have said before, the government nor the police have any plans to change the police have any plans to change the current situation around policing of the border or any other parts of the country. the sun? thank

you, can you share your evidence with the public about the transmission rate, given this is shaping policy? can you be clear about how this r numbers calculate it? doctor smith suggested deaths are a factor but what is there in the community and care homes and hospitals? if it is far higher in ca re hospitals? if it is far higher in care homes and hospitals, how can you assure the public we are not being kept indoors due to an inappropriate broadbrush policy caused by the overall rate being skewed by these institutions? firstly, we will look to see what more we can publish. we want to be as transparent as possible. we publish two of our documents which shows our thinking and what we are basing that thinking on. we cannot yet say, this is what the experts say to me, exactly what the r number is in care homes, not least because it's not a uniform picture across cairns. we have roughly half of all our care homes in scotland that have

had no cases of the infection at all. we have others that have had very high rates of infections and sadly a high number of deaths. i would caution you against seeing what happens in care homes as isolated from what happens in the community. there will always be an interaction between the two, just as there will be interaction between infection rates and hospitals and community as staff will go from a place of work into the wider community. so these things are more interlinked than you might think is the case. we will continue to be as open and transparent about notjust the decisions we are taking but the evidence base of these decisions as we can be. they want to add anything? alll we can be. they want to add anything? all i would say, in addition to that, with the data that we have this country, it is impossible to state with any degree of confidence at all, the modelling groups have looked at this extensively. it is impossible to state with any degree of confidence

what separate r numbers are for hospitals or care homes. what we haveis hospitals or care homes. what we have is the best estimate of the r numberfor the have is the best estimate of the r number for the country as a whole, which includes all those three aspects. the daily record? can you tell us that number? i think several times i have said to you i cannot tell you that number because the experts tell me it is not possible to say with certainty what it is. if ido to say with certainty what it is. if i do get told what that number is, just as we have with the estimate of the r rate in the community, i will share that with the public. i'm trying to take as open and approach to this is possible but i'm not ever going to stand up here and just give you numbers that are not solidly based, however much you might want me to do that. i am telling you and i have told you a number of times before i cannot give you that number right now. it's not i don't want to give you it, it's because i'm not able to give you that on a solidly evidence—based way. the daily

record? good afternoon, first minister. last week you said that the leaked change to newspapers of all those details, the thing that gave you the most concern with this change in messaging. you said that after your conversation with the prime minister, you sort of indicated you were on the same page with your messaging. has the prime minister done a complete u—turn since your telephone call or are they treating the prime minister with contempt and is the prime minister saying what he thinks of people want to hear at any moment in time? i appreciate that valiant attempt to put some provocative words into my mouth there. i will resist that temptation. i have said all along this is not a normal political situation at all. the kind of rhetoric backwards and forwards between politicians that might be appropriate during normal times isn't appropriate right now. i only

ca re isn't appropriate right now. i only care about all of us trying to take the right decisions to tackle this virus as best we can. i heard the prime minister last week, i have heard him again today say that stay at home remains an important message. the question in my mind is how that fits with the change in the campaign that we have seen reported in the sunday papers today. since i am not proposing to make that change here in scotland, i think it is better for here in scotland, i think it is betterfor me to here in scotland, i think it is better for me to leave it to the prime minister to explain how a stay at home message fits with dropping a stay at home message for england. i will continue to articulate the message that i want to give to you, the people of scotland, which is to stay at home, except for the essential purposes because what i said last week, and again i am talking for scotland, based on the evidence as i see it, to move away from that right now, to muddy the waters, to give people mixed m essa 9 es waters, to give people mixed messages and effectively leave people not really understanding what it is we are asking you to do and

not do would be potentially catastrophic. because it would lead to people perhaps, through no fault of their own, going out more than they should, or mixing with people more than they should and that is the circumstances in which we would see a rapid increase in the virus. sol see a rapid increase in the virus. so i will continue to articulate a message for scotland that i think is the right one and i'm afraid i will have to leave it to the prime minister, as i'm sure he will set out later on, to say why he thinks that change of message for england is appropriate and will not run the risks that i have expressed concern about. the guardian? good afternoon, first minister. you say that you have asked the uk government not to use the new yellow and green stay alert logo in scotland however it will be visible in scotland. it will be on the uk broadcasters to ev, in uk newspapers and so on. do you think that that

logo needs a disclaimer? have you sought or received guarantees the uk government will make clear on that logo it is supposed to be england only? just to be clear, i have not... we have not yet specifically and we will consider whether this would be practically possible or sensible in any way but i have not asked for the words england only to be put on the logo. i have asked and hopefully this will happen, but the prime minister to be very careful when he is giving any messages or announcing any decisions where he is speaking for england only. and by contrast where he is speaking for the whole of the uk. if he announces border control tonight, i accept he will be speaking for the whole of the uk but when he talks about lifting restrictions to lock down, he is only speaking for england. in terms of public health advice, he is only speaking for england. i think it is incumbent, just as i am very clear, lam only incumbent, just as i am very clear, i am only speaking for scotland when

i say their advice absolutely stay at home. i think we all have to take ca re at home. i think we all have to take care to make sure that we are clear about that. mix messaging here is not inevitable. many people i know are watching this update, watching the uk government's daily updates. people are very capable of working out where they live and whose public health advice they should be following. the public are far more intelligent than perhaps sometimes politicians give you credit for. so we will continue to work hard to make sure the message that we are putting across to people in scotland is the one that people understand is that that they should follow. the ft? thank you, you made the point you would not want the uk government to use its new stay alert message in its advertising in scotland. just for clarity, would you want them to continue that advertising campaign using the stay home message or would you rather theyjust stop doing

their advertising at all? on that, as the uk government given any response to your request on this? asi response to your request on this? as i said earlier on, i don't know if you heard in response to the previous question, there was a communications meeting after cobra andi communications meeting after cobra and i hope that agreement would be met in that meeting. you can see an example of the stay at her message behind me. any advertising space the uk government may have secured in scotland, we can provide scottish government public health messaging for that, as we have been doing at points previously and so that the scottish government plasma health campaign, which is clearly still stay at home can be utilised for any advertising space in scotland. the national? professor linda board was talking about the pausing of the cancer screening plan in holyrood. he said

—— because she said normally it screens 100,000 people a month. do you have any update about when the cancer screening programme will resume and also if there is any plan to deal with the backlog? lam sure to deal with the backlog? i am sure you heard when we set out the regrettable decision to have to pause the cancer screening programmes the reason for deciding to pause rather than try to continue them through this period. in response to part of your question, we are considering now how we resume any nhs procedures that have been paused. the health secretary can talk about that in a moment. it will include screening programmes. the reason we decided to pause was so nobody would miss out and we could then catch up with people. if we had carried on and somebody missed an appointment because maybe they had the virus or they were worried about going for their appointment in case it brought them into contact with other people, then what would happen by default is they would then not get another appointment until the

three year or five year get another appointment until the three year orfive year or get another appointment until the three year or five year or whatever the timescale of the screening is. by the timescale of the screening is. by pausing, it means we can pick up where we left off, so nobody should miss an appointment. it willjust be slightly later. if you are due to be screened in this period, then it would as otherwise have been so we could catch up and deal with the backlog. it wasjudged could catch up and deal with the backlog. it was judged that was less ofa backlog. it was judged that was less of a problem for people than carrying on and allowing people to com pletely carrying on and allowing people to completely miss their appointment in this cycle. do you want to say a word about restoring and resuming nhs procedures? a great deal of work is now under way to look across the whole of the nhs, from primary care right through to acute care, about what might be possible, in terms of restoring some of the areas that have been paused in order to allow us to be ready to deal with the pandemic. the important thing, two important points in this. one is we need to be sure we can retain a

capacity to deal with covid—19 cases, including if there is an increase in those cases, both in our bed numbers and also in our intensive care unit numbers. secondly, in looking at that work, we need to very proactively engage the widest possible clinical community about the views that they have. so the cmo has been in touch with the royal colleges. i have spoken to the bma and the rcm. we have begun to alert the unions representing staff across our nhs, so that we understand all the views that are coming so that we can make what will nonetheless be complex and at times difficult decisions about what it is possible to restart but what it is possible to restart but what isn't possible to restart because of the impact that might have on our capacity to deal nonetheless with cases as a result of the pandemic. and into all of

that will go the screening programmes, because we share the very strong view about the importance of those programmes as preventative, as well as picking up individuals who are beginning to show signs that they might have cancer. so all of that will be factored into the mix. we will absolutely be back making very clear to people the criteria we have used to people the criteria we have used to make decisions, what the initial steps might be and then what subsequent steps might be. before i finish, the other point i need to ta ke finish, the other point i need to take this opportunity to make, of course, is to remember that the nhs is open. it is open for urgent, fair cancer, for emergency and for maternity. so if you have any of those worrying symptoms that the cmo has described before, of course if you have an emergency and if you are pregnant, then please be in touch with your nhs because it is there to help you right now. thank you, the

times? jonathan ashworth, labour's shadow health secretary said locking down some bits of the country are not other bits of the country doesn't work when that approach was attempted in italy, lots of essentially middle—class people went from northern italy to southern italy and took the virus with them. if the r rate is higher in scotland, are you concerned england's message will be seen as some kind of green light to go for a jolly in the lake district or something? also, you said that the public is smarter than some politicians may give them credit for and can understand new messages. why can't we have different messages for different parts of scotland ? different messages for different parts of scotland? for example, greater glasgow stay at home. inverness, you can go about your day ina inverness, you can go about your day in a slightly more normal way? if the evidence said that was

necessary and if we judged that that was practically deliverable than i've never ruled that out but we are not at that stage at this point. in terms of, again, forgive me, i've not seenjon terms of, again, forgive me, i've not seen jon ashworth's terms of, again, forgive me, i've not seenjon ashworth's comments. but i also think it's really important we don't get ahead of ourselves here. i think what you will see for the next few days is minor differences between the different countries of the uk, in terms of what the detail of the loch town restrictions are. not heading for a situation where scotland is in lockdown and england is not. if we ever got to that stage, and i don't anticipate we will get to that stage, then clearly you have more fundamental issues to issues to try to resolve. but let's not overstate the degree of detailed differences we are likely to be looking at. what we are likely to be looking at. what we are likely to be looking at. what we are talking at here is the potential for different nations of the uk going at slightly different paces because we are all, potentially, at a slightly different

stage of the infection curve that you all hear us talking about. these are important differences at times. we have to communicate them clearly. we have to communicate them clearly. we have to all avoid mixed messages and undermining each other‘s m essa g es and undermining each other‘s messages but equally let's not exaggerate the differences that are likely to be in place. the career? thank you. i want to ask you about that policy of allowing people out more than once a day and what kind of impact you would expect that to have on the transmission rate. is it a case now of wait and see or do you have any specific projections you could share with us today? we expect the impact on the transmission rate to be very, very minimal of this. if we didn't think that, we wouldn't be doing this today. the main reason in overall terms and this is why over the next week we will consider if other forms

of outdoor activity might be possible, is while i am absolutely not saying there is no risk of outdoor transmission, because there is, that's why keeping two metres apart from others even outside, avoiding hard surfaces because you can pick the infection up there. but the evidence suggests the risk of transmission outdoors are less than the risk of transmission when you are indoors, which is why it is easier to lift restrictions outdoors thanit easier to lift restrictions outdoors than it is at the moment to lift them indoors. that is why we have decided to make this one change today because we think the risks to transmission are very low but the benefits for people's health and well—being are potentially very significant. i have said before, it isa significant. i have said before, it is a worry every single day of the other impact of what we're doing to tackle this virus. so the more we can relieve the pressure on people's well—being, the better. which is why this is a small change but potentially a very important one.

the epidemiologist analyst have looked at this carefully over the last few weeks at the impact of different types of change and the restrictions we have in place. what they have assessed is this particular one we have announced today, to be able to go outside and today, to be able to go outside and to exercise more often, has a very, very little impact on the actual transmission rates. with one caveat, as long as people continue to observe the social distancing measures, the physical distancing measures, the physical distancing measures, the physical distancing measures, the hand hygiene and all the other things we have stated are really critical all along. as we look not only to experience other countries and how changes in their restrictions, what we constantly learn is using the models that have been used elsewhere, using the data and the impacts that other countries have experienced as they start to change their restrictions, we begin to learn more and more about how we apply those models within scotland

and what impact that might have on our population as well. as i say, this is one where we know there are real health benefits to being outside more often. we know that actually exercising outside of something which is beneficial not only ina something which is beneficial not only in a physical sense but actually it is good for our mental well—being as well. so we have judged, i think it's a very fair judgment, that actually, the risk of going forward with this at this time, despite the fact the r is still fairly close to one, is absolutely minimal. thank you, and the last question from carers world? thank you. a slightly different angle. the dementia uk helpline has received an increase of 44% in calls. what assurance can you give that those with dementia, their ca re rs that those with dementia, their carers and the care homes in which some of them live won't get left behind or indeed forgotten in an exit strategy based on the needs of the economy and the wider

population? it's a really important point, tom, and a good one to end on. i will hand over to the health secretary to talk about the work we're doing to point out the risk you pointed out doesn't materialise. it is an important point and i'm very conscious of the important restrictions that we are putting in place in this lockdown and particularly what we are required to be happening in our care homes is causing a difficulty of some considerable extent to people who have dementia and to those who care for them. we have, have dementia and to those who care forthem. we have, ithink, in scotland, a very good dementia strategy overall and we are now working with scottish care and with those advisers to see what more we can do so that there can be real clinical risk assessments done that allow us to balance the need for infection prevention and control,

alongside minimising and mitigating the distress that some of those measures are causing to people who have dementia and to those who care for them. and as we do that, we will of course work with the dementia organisations and the carers involved, to understand from them what would help them. we have already introduced a number of practical steps but i think, i know there is more we can do and that work is under way to see how we can add to all of that to help individuals in those circumstances. thank you very much. can i thank... studio: we will leave that press briefing by nicola sturgeon, the first minister. basically, the message from her is while the english can stay alert, that will be the new message for english people, the new message for english people, the message for the scots is stay at home. although, the exercise restrictions which have been limited to just once restrictions which have been limited tojust once a restrictions which have been limited to just once a day are now, have now

been extended. critical also the fa ct been extended. critical also the fact she had read about the english in the papers. time for us to catch up in the papers. time for us to catch up with some weather. this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. borisjohnson says people should "stay alert" as he prepares to lay out his roadmap for lifting restrictions in england, but his government faces criticism the message is confusing. first minister nicola sturgeon eases restrictions in scotland slightly and says people can exercise more than once a day, but other rules will stay in place. it would be catastrophic for me to drop the stay at home message, which is why i am not prepared to do it. and i am particularly not prepared to do it in favour of a message that is vague and imprecise. airlines say they've had ‘no clarity‘ from the uk government over