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Management information collected by the Chief Dental Officer indicates that as of 12 July 2020, 929 practices, from a total of 1024, had reopened. The majority of remaining practices have a confirmed date for reopening and practices are required to certify to their NHS Board that they are fully compliant with current guidance, which is delivered by NES through the ‘practice recovery toolkit’, before reopening. No NHS Board has informed SG that financial concerns are the reason for not having reopened.

The financial support measures are in place to ensure the health and safety of all patients and staff attending dental practices as they reopen remains the primary consideration and in taking a phased approach the government is seeking to balance the overall risk of infection with the needs of patients to be seen by dentists and ensure dental practices are funded appropriately throughout.

Since 22 June 2020, compliance of wearing face coverings by passengers on public transport in Scotland has been high. Transport Scotland officials continue to work closely with operators across all travel modes to monitor and encourage appropriate passenger behaviours and compliance.

The powers are in place, through the legislation, for fixed penalty notices to be issued, if required, to enforce compliance.

On 10 July, the Scottish Government published guidance for close contact services which applies to hairdressers and other personal retail services.

This guidance is based on a risk assessment process which business owners should use to identify which treatments and activities can be offered safely. This includes a comprehensive checklist to be used to implement safe working practices.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30128 on 7 July 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30128 on 7 July 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30128 on 7 July 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The information is not held centrally. Please refer to answer to question S5W-29384 on 16 July 2020 for further information about data on hospital admissions from care homes. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The phased resumption of visiting and communal activity in care homes was referred to in ‘Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis’. On the 25 th June, the Scottish Government published the Coronavirus (COVID-19): adult care home visiting guidance. This guidance sets out a new 4 stage pathway on how care home visiting restrictions are to be gradually lifted.

Effective on the 3 rd July, care homes which have been COVID free for 28 days will, subject to the agreement of the local Health Protection and Care Home Clinical and Care Professional Oversight teams, be able to move to stage 2 of the pathway which allows for outdoor visits to care home residents by a designated visitor of their choice.

Stages 3 will subsequently allow indoor visits by the designated visitor and greater freedom for outdoor visits and communal activity, whilst stage 4 will see the introduction of indoor visits by visitors Progression along the pathway to stages 3 and 4 will be dependent on whether the scientific evidence indicates that is it safe to do so.

The phased resumption of visiting and communal activity in care homes was referred to in ‘Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis’.On the 25 th June, the Scottish Government published the Coronavirus (COVID-19): adult care home visiting guidance. This guidance sets out a new 4 stage pathway on how care home visiting restrictions are to be gradually lifted.

A public health surveillance system for ongoing analysis and interpretation of alcohol and drug health-related data is being developed. Understanding the scope, scale and impact of the problem will inform action to reduce harm and prevent premature death. The work is defined in our drug and alcohol strategy, Rights, Respect and Recovery, and is being led by Public Health Scotland (PHS). PHS are placing a particular focus on the surveillance drug harms and deaths and this is being developed on behalf of the Drug Death Task Force.

PHS are working to provide a statement with more information on how this system will operate and the partners involved. This will be available in September.

We have committed to revising and improving substance use education, both in and out of school settings, to ensure it is good quality, impactful and in line with best practice and we are currently working with PHS to deliver this. We are also taking forward substance use education work in our schools through Curriculum for Excellence, to inform young people and help them make healthy choices.

The Covid-19 Clinical Guidance Cell, which was established by the Chief Medical Officer to rapidly develop and revise guidance on clinical management of COVID-19 for the NHS, has produced guidance on prevention of venous thromboembolism in hospitalised patients with COVID-19-related disease.

This guidance has been developed in partnership with Health Improvement Scotland and SIGN, based on review of available evidence. It is currently at the peer review stage and is going to be published on the SIGN website soon.

As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) launched the Rapid Research in COVID-19 programme on March 25th 2020. Following independent expert review, the list of funded applications was published on April 28th 2020. No applications specifically addressing links between COVID-19 and DVT were received. A number of projects were funded on COVID-19 related inflammation, hypertension and cardiovascular injury with potential pathophysiological relevance to DVT. Links to the lay summaries of these studies on the CSO website are provided below.

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/COVEDI2010.pdf

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/COVGLA2004.pdf

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/COVGLA2005.pdf

The full list of funded projects is available from the CSO website

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/rapid-research-in-covid-19-programme/