Tories call for ‘targeted’ approach to Covid with phased end to restrictions

The Scottish Tories laid out their proposals for dealing with the end of the pandemic in a document on Tuesday.

Tory health spokesman Sandesh Gulhane said ‘it’s time to move on from blanket legal restrictions’ (Fraser Bremner/Scottish Daily Mail/PA) (PA Wire)

The Scottish Tories have called for a “more targeted” approach to Covid-19 in a new document.

The party laid out its proposals for dealing with the pandemic as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs Scotland was “through the worst” of the new Omicron variant.

In the document, the party called for the scaling down of Test and Protect, a phased end to all legal restrictions and a new levels system which will be aligned to data on the virus.

Speaking in Holyrood on Tuesday, the party’s health spokesman, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, said: “We believe it’s time to move on from blanket legal restrictions to an approach that emphasises personal responsibility.

“We must get Scotland back as close to normal for as many people as possible.”

“There is a temptation, and I understand it, to say that because Covid is now more under control, that we should lift all of the basic protections but, in actual fact, it is some of those basic protections that have helped us get it under control and will help us keep it under control,” Ms Sturgeon said.

She added that her Government would “look carefully” at the proposals from the Tories and anything published by other opposition parties, but added: “We will take responsible and proportionate actions to support the country through this and back to normal in a safe and sustainable way.”

On the proposals to scale down Test and Protect, the First Minister said: “Of course, there are decisions to be taken about it for the longer term, but right now contact tracing and the universal testing offer is a key way in which we’re hoping to keep infection under control and, crucially, to help give additional assurance to those that are most vulnerable.

“If I’m contacted by Test and Protect and told that I’ve been a close contact of a positive case, then that will help me behave in a way that breaks transmission chains generally, but also means I can behave in a way that doesn’t put those that are most vulnerable at highest risk.”