As we start the countdown to Christmas and open the first door on our advent calendars the stats for Scotland continue to cause concern.

As of 1st December 2020:

• 754 new cases of COVID-19 reported
• 34 new reported death(s) of people who have tested positive
• 70 people were in intensive care yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19
• 1,021 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19
• 13,039 new tests for COVID-19 that reported results – 7.3% of these were positive

Click here to access the data : Coronavirus (COVID-19): trends in daily data

Last week all the nations of the UK announced the easing of restrictions over Christmas. 4 Nations Easing of #Covid Restrictions for Christmas

You can find more guidance and advice about Christmas here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance for festive period

If you can, the NHS Covid contact tracing app , is free to download. Protect Scotland

Yesterday, 30th of November, the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon announced a pro rata £500 Christmas bonus to all NHS and social care workers employed since 17 March 2020 – including staff who have had to shield, or who have since retired.

The £180 million will see over 300,000 staff gain some benefit from this bonus, including nurses, porters, doctors, primary care staff, homecare workers, care home staff, hospice staff and residential child care staff.

The details are:

All NHS Employees, including: 

• staff who have been active in the NHS since 17 March 2020 but who have since left NHS employment, including retirees
• staff who accepted and worked on temporary contracts since 17 March to aid pandemic response but who have since left NHS employment, including students who worked under temporary contracts but who have since returned to University
• staff covered by the Two Tier Agreement
• General Practitioners and their practice teams, including 2C practices

Staff providing NHS services under independent contractor arrangements including:

• GP surgery staff
• NHS Dental surgery staff
• NHS pharmacy services staff
• NHS optometry staff

Staff working in Adult Social Care including:

• Care home staff
• Homecare staff
• Palliative care/hospice staff
• Adult Personal Assistants
• Social care staff in residential child care settings
• Social Workers (including those working with children and families and in criminal justice)

No change has been announced to the tier local authorities have been placed in. There was a warning, however, today that the rise in cases of Covid in Aberdeen city and the shire is causing great concern. The local authorities who were placed in level 4 will have that restriction lifted on 11th of December. It will be announced then what the new levels will be. Orkney Remains At Tier 1 As Parts of Scotland Move to 4

More information here on the levels: Coronavirus (COVID-19): local protection levels

There is good news on the vaccination programme which awaits supplies of the vaccine but apart from that all the arrangements are in place for that to go ahead.

Reporter: Fiona Grahame