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The Scottish Government has, on a daily basis, been monitoring the number of settings/schools/hubs that are open for children and young people of keyworkers and/or vulnerable, and how many children and young people have been attending these since schools closed.

Research and survey activity is also being undertaken by a range of external stakeholders (such as academic institutions, private and voluntary organisations, etc.) which cover the UK as a whole, but some which only focusses on Scotland. These studies gather evidence directly from children and young people, in light of the current covid-19 situation, with regards to their thoughts, feelings and experiences during this period (including the impact of school closures and home schooling), and contributes to the evidence base on which the Scottish Government draws to inform and monitor the impact the current situation is having on the lives of children and young people.

Scottish Rugby, supported by the Scottish Government, undertook a comprehensive health and safety risk assessment which took into account the wellbeing of staff, spectators, stewards and hospitality staff who were in the Murrayfield complex before, during and after the match against France.

Following the assessment, Scottish Rugby implemented a number of measures, overseen by their Threat Management Group. This included cancelling conferences/events which were booked into the Stadium in the week leading up to the game, stopping all non-essential transport in and out of the complex, employing extra staff to assist spectators with hygiene, purchasing hand sanitisers and making them available to all in the ground. Scottish Rugby also assisted with the Chief Medical Officer making a hand washing video which was broadcast on the large screens. Scottish Rugby also produced signage and social media content to promote the Scottish Government’s public health and hygiene messages.

On match day, Scottish Rugby posted medical staff on entry points into the ground to be able to speak to spectators on arrival. They also set up a quarantine zone where spectators could go and seek medical advice should they feel unwell on arrival or throughout their time in the Stadium Complex.

These actions were also rolled out in other stadiums which hosted other Scotland matches, Scotstoun and Netherdale.

On 2 June 2020 the Cabinet Secretary for Health & Sport made a statement to the Scottish Parliament concerning the on-going delivery of NHS services as part of the Scottish Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this statement she indicated that work is being undertaken with dental teams to prepare for a phased introduction of dental services over the course of this month.

The Chief Dental Officer for Scotland wrote to all dental contractors providing NHS dental services on 20 May with details of the remobilisation plan which is now to be implemented as circumstances permit.

Remobilisation of NHS dental practices is an extremely complex process. We need to be mindful of the oral health needs of patients balanced against the wider situation with COVID-19, and the essential requirement that we reduce the risk of community transmission and protect both patients and dental teams. When making the decision on reopening dental practices in Scotland we will take into consideration the added risk of aerosol generating procedures on COVID-19 transmission and the availability of appropriate PPE.

The level of PPE that police officers and police staff must use to fully comply with the Health & Safety aspects of operational policing is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to decide. Police Scotland advises that officers can risk assess whether or not to use a surgical mask for routine policing activities where there are no symptoms or other indications of Covid-19 but where it may be difficult to apply social distancing measures. If there is a requirement for police support at an incident of suspected or confirmed COVID-19, wherever possible trained officers in full PPE kit will be deployed to attend. This kit comprises of:

• FFP3 Face Masks
• Disposable Suit EN14126 Standard
• Indirect Vent Goggles
• Long cuff Nitrile Gloves
• Surgical masks

Whilst the NHS remains on an emergency footing, we continue to work closely with all NHS Boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to ensure that their local mobilisation plans remain as robust as possible; and consistent with the Scottish Government’s ‘Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design: The Framework for NHS Scotland’, published on 31 May.

Longer term work on the future of health and social care services will be taken forward under the Government's Renewal programme. A key part of this programme will be to meaningfully engage with the public and our workforce to establish what a safe, sustainable, high quality health and social care system will look like in the future, rooted in individual and staff wellbeing.

We are working with NHS Boards on the development and implementation of robust mobilisation plans. These plans set out how Health Boards and their partners will maintain COVID-19 resilience, whilst safely and incrementally resuming services which have been paused and ensuring sufficient capacity to accommodate the expected increase in activity in those urgent areas that were protected as part of the emergency response. A key part of this work is to assess what plans need to be put in place for winter. Consideration of the local plans will be informed by Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design: The Framework for NHS Scotland , which was published on 31 May.

The Scottish Government has, on a daily basis, been monitoring the number of settings/schools/hubs that are open for children and young people of keyworkers and/or vulnerable, and how many children and young people have been attending these since schools closed.

Research and survey activity is also being undertaken by a range of external stakeholders (such as academic institutions, private and voluntary organisations, etc.) which cover the UK as a whole, but some which only focusses on Scotland. These studies gather evidence directly from children and young people, in light of the current covid-19 situation, with regards to their thoughts, feelings and experiences during this period (including the impact of school closures and home schooling), and contributes to the evidence base on which the Scottish Government draws to inform and monitor the impact the current situation is having on the lives of children and young people.

Care home residents and staff are priorities for testing. Testing is taking place in care homes, in accordance with our current priority to direct testing to save lives and protect the vulnerable.

There has been a steady expansion of testing for care home residents and workers.

Testing clearly does not provide a comprehensive response to the COVID threat, but it is an important tool to help guide clinical response, assess prevalence, transmission and the impact of infection prevention and control in these settings.

Patients and residents in care settings are likely to be more vulnerable due to co-morbid conditions or other risk factors. We have already implemented testing policies to address some of those risks:

Testing over 70s on admission to hospital;

• Discharges to care homes subject to 2 negative tests before admission and other admissions to care homes to be tested before or on admission; and
• Enhanced outbreak investigation approach to care homes (all residents tested where there is one infected resident)

We are now moving to test all care home workers on a weekly basis. I announced on 18 May that regular testing will be carried out of staff in care homes, subject to their agreement, which will include testing staff who are not symptomatic.

NHS Boards have put in place local pathways with Health and Social Care Partnerships to enable social care staff to access testing. This includes clear lines for the independent and third sector workforce in care homes and care at home settings.

There will be read across to the new Test and Protect activity which will seek to maintain low levels of community transmission and will cover everyone who displays COVID-like symptoms.

Under current regulations, moving house, where reasonably necessary, is considered a reasonable excuse for travel. In those cases, our guidance is then to stay at that home as much as possible.

We hope that in Phase 2 we will be able to relax rules to allow people to meet with another household indoors, whilst observing physical distancing and hygiene measures to contain the spread of the virus. This would include households of more than one person and would be in small numbers.

Until then, there remains a risk of the virus rapidly spreading and overwhelming our NHS if physical distancing is not observed. For that reason, the advice remains where possible to stay at home and to maintain a 2 metre distance when meeting members of another household outdoors. We will continue to monitor the situation and will advise when it is safe to relax restrictions further.

The Routemap and associated COVID-19 guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-framework-decision-making-scotlands-route-map-through-out-crisis/

As announced on 8 April 2020, we have introduced a £5 million package of emergency financial support to help students facing hardship as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. This £5 million includes an additional £2.2 million for Scotland’s Higher Education (HE) Discretionary Funds specifically to address COVID-19 related hardships, which has been made available to colleges and universities immediately. Also as part of that package of £5 million support, the Scottish Funding Council are making £2 million available to support further education (FE) students at college.

The HE Discretionary Funds made available to universities and colleges can be used to support students over summer, up to the end of July, in recognition of reduced employment options.

The Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020 which makes provisions in relation to tenancies for students in halls of residence and Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) has come into force There is a 7 day notice period for those who have already entered into a student residential tenancy agreement and have occupied the property; and a 28 day notice period for those who have already entered into a student residential tenancy but have not yet occupied the property and agreements entered into while the Act is in force. Students would only be able to use notice periods for Covid-19 specific reasons.

We remain committed to ensuring students are supported during this challenging time and we are actively considering issues relating to the support available for the coming academic year as well as for over the summer months.