The number of reported Covid-19 cases in the north of Scotland remains less than initially feared, NHS Highland has said.
The update was delivered today at NHS Highland’s board meeting at Assynt House as executives and non-executives gathered for the second time since lockdown restrictions were put in place, albeit with some appearing via video link.
The board’s medical director Boyd Peters updated his fellow board members on the action taken by the health board to curb the spread of coronavirus in the Highlands.
Dr Peters said: “The number of cases has been of low volume and decreasing and that reflects what we are seeing in all of our data that the number of cases is being controlled and slowly dropping in most areas.
“There are still pockets of infection in urban areas around the Highlands and that is in line with what is being seen in the rest of Scotland.”
NHS Highland has reconfigured its services which has allowed for the expansion of intensive treatment units, however, Dr Peters said: “Happily that expansion has not been needed”.
Dr Peters informed the board that at present NHS Highland has an adequate supply of PPE through national provision.
The number of reported positive cases in Highland today stands at 232, with 61 people in hospital with either confirmed or suspected coronavirus, with 5 in intensive care.
The health board’s director of public health Ken Oates praised Highlanders for their efforts which has helped to prevent the spread of the virus.
Dr Oates said: “The Highlands has been one of the areas in Scotland with the lowest incidences of cases and I think that has primarily been down to three things.
“First of all, the Highland public support and compliance with the social distancing advice that has been given. That has been fantastic to see by the people who live here.
“Secondly, it has been due to a lot of excellent work from health and social care colleagues to contain the spread of infection and to get on top of any small outbreaks that have occurred and stop those before they spread too far.
“And thirdly, we have indubitably benefited from our rural geography and dispersed population.
“We are in a good place and I think we are now well through the first curve or phase in the Highlands, but we do need to emphasise the importance of complying with social distancing.”
NHS Highland has said it will be increasing testing and contact tracing in line with government advice expected next week.
Dr Peters added: “In addition to our local capacity of testing, we also have a backup capacity of 100 tests supplied by Glasgow.
“We are about to have on stream a regional testing centre, which is run separate to NHS Highland, and also, a mobile testing unit will soon arrive and will be deployed with our direction to testing where we feel it is strategically necessary in any given locus.
“It is likely that we will ramp up testing now that we have increased capability and that will be in line with what is also wished for at a national level.
“Testing will play an important part in the exit strategy from lockdown.”
