SCTS News

This week the First Minister provided an update to the Scottish Parliament on the country’s progress in tackling COVID-19.  In particular she provided an update on what is known about the Omicron variant and the steps being taken to respond.

Although there are no immediate changes to current safety measures, the First Minister emphasised that it is vital at this stage to maximise compliance with the existing safety measures in place and to test regularly and repeatedly with lateral flow devices – in particular before mixing with people from other households.

Our commitment remains that anyone who needs to visit or work in our premises will be able to do so safely, and our existing baseline safety measures will remain in place.

In addition, we would like to highlight the need for us all to test regularly with lateral flow devices (LFDs). The First Minister’s advice was very clear that lateral flow tests should be taken before mixing with others and we encourage everyone to do so before attending our buildings each day. While this can be inconvenient, taking daily lateral flow tests before attending our buildings will help protect all who visit or work in them.

Lateral flow tests are free and can be sent to your home, collected from your nearest test site or picked up from your nearest participating pharmacy. 

We appreciate everyone’s ongoing co-operation by continuing to keep your guard up, wash your hands frequently, wear face coverings, respect others' personal space and keep your distance, and keep taking regular lateral flow tests and PCR tests when necessary.

We will continue to keep a close eye on the latest public health guidance and will provide updates as and when there are any developments or changes required. Until then, please stay safe and keep following all the safety measures in place.

Scottish Government baseline safety measures

• ​​​​​​​get the vaccine or the vaccine booster when available to you
• if you don’t have symptoms take regular lateral flow tests – especially before mixing with other people
• wear a face covering where required
• if you have symptoms – self isolate and book a PCR test
• wash your hands regularly, and cover your nose and mouth if coughing or sneezing
• open windows when meeting indoors
• if you can, keep your distance from people not in your group
• work from home if you can
• use the apps: COVID status (vaccine passport), Protect Scotland and Check-in Scotland

Current safety measures for all who use our buildings

• We encourage everyone to respect personal space and maintain at least 1m physical distancing in all our buildings.
• We continue to encourage good hand hygiene, maintain enhanced surface cleaning – especially of high touch-point areas – and maintain good ventilation.
• The legal requirement for face coverings to be worn in our buildings is still in place.
• Our “Safe2Go” contact system continues to require all those accessing our buildings to check-in and check-out using the system.
• General public access to our buildings will continue to be restricted and public counters remain closed.
• We continue to support home working arrangements where possible