I was born in Aberdeen in 1967 – just three years after the terrifying typhoid epidemic of 1964 closed the city down.
For my parents, our neighbours and hundreds of thousands of Aberdonians, the coronavirus crisis is their second experience of community lockdown.
They remember well the disruption of schools, swimming pools, cinemas, bingo and dance halls shutting down to curb an outbreak eventually sourced to contaminated corned beef. Fishing vessels had to stay in port, matches at Pittodrie were postponed and Butlins in Ayr cancelled Aberdonians’ bookings for fear of infection.
As now, the caring professions responded magnificently. The strength of our local institutions served us well. Aberdeen established a medical school around the time Columbus discovered America and it is one of the finest in the United Kingdom today. Many of my school friends graduated from there to join the NHS.
The frontline professionals of the NHS are demonstrating extraordinary dedication today, as are all those working in care homes and throughout the emergency services.
The frontline professionals of the NHS are demonstrating extraordinary dedication today, as are all those working in care homes and throughout the emergency services.
For their crucial efforts during the coronavirus crisis, I want to thank all the key workers helping to keep the country going. And I want also to thank the public across Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom for drawing deep on their reserves of resilience and resolve.
A month since the government introduced social distancing measures, you continue to pull together to stay at home and save lives. Those sacrifices have not been in vain. Thanks to a united effort across the UK we are flattening the curve; cresting the peak without the NHS being overwhelmed.
Wherever you look, whether at financial support, protecting frontline workers, treating the sick or ramping up testing, the UK is working as one to get through the pandemic. This same team spirit will carry us through the next phase as, together, we consider adjusting the current measures when the science says it is safe to do so.
Co-operation on the ground is matched at government level. The First Ministers of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have attended COBRA meetings since the outbreak of coronavirus to coordinate the response, and we are working very closely with the devolved governments as we consider changes to the social distancing measures across the UK – again, when the scientific advice shows it is the right time to do so safely.
In Aberdeen, we recognise that financial worries may be heightened by the oil price slump. Nearly £3.5bn of additional UK Government funds have been provided to the Scottish Government for businesses and charities, and to bolster local authorities delivering public services. That’s on top of the £330bn in UK-wide business support schemes launched by the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak.
For the protection of workers, 11 million pieces of PPE kit have been committed to Scotland from UK central stocks and a series of testing sites opened to give people peace of mind about their own health. And as of last week, I was delighted to see, many of their swabs will be tested at the newly-opened Lighthouse Lab in Glasgow, one of only three coronavirus ‘superlabs’ in the UK. Staff at this important site plan to ramp up operations in coming weeks to complete many thousands of tests every day, enabling workers to return to patient care, and supporting the national target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day.
Finally, we are all benefiting from the fantastic support of our armed forces: in Scotland they’re working with the 14 NHS boards. Three Puma helicopters have been deployed to Kinloss Barracks, and so far four critically ill people from Shetland, Orkney and Arran have been airlifted to hospitals in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Kilmarnock. We are grateful to the military planners and liaison officers in Edinburgh and all the efforts of the Royal Highland Fusiliers and the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
It was on March 13 that the first coronavirus death in Scotland was reported, by NHS Lothian. Tragically, 1249 people in Scotland have since lost their lives to this invisible killer. It is thanks to all your efforts that the figure is not higher still.
It is entirely understandable, in these difficult times, that people want to know if the end is in sight. Realistically, around the world we will be living with this disease for some time to come.
Only once we are reassured on our five key tests can we safely adjust the distancing measures: the NHS’s ability to cope; a sustained fall in daily death rates; reliable scientific data showing the infection rate falling to manageable levels; sufficient testing capacity and PPE to meet future demand – and, finally, the confidence that any changes would not risk a second peak of infections that would overwhelm the NHS and undo much of our work to date.
For the country as a whole, for our public health and economy, that would be the worst outcome. So once again – huge thanks for everything you have done so far, but also for everything you will continue to do, to keep our nation safe.
Michael Gove is Minister for the Cabinet Office
