Health Secretary confirms two new cases of coronavirus in Scotland
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Scotland's health secretary Jeane Freeman has confirmed two new cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed in Scotland – but has not revealed where the patients are.
The new diagnoses take the total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Scotland to three and comes a day after coronavirus testing facilities were established at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
The first Scottish case was diagnosed earlier this week, in the Tayside area.
Ms Freeman said: "I can confirm that overnight we were informed of two more cases.
"Obviously at this point, I'm sure you can appreciate that there isn't more I can say.
"We will release more information later – so that takes our total number of cases in Scotland to three.
"There are a number of steps that we need to go through with the patients concerned and other matters before we can release any level of information. Partly it's about patient confidentiality, partly it's about making sure that we get the right clinical responses to cases.
"So later in the day, we will be able to let you and others know, but at this point all I can confirm is that we have two more cases, bringing the total to three."
Yesterday Highland MP and MSP Drew Hendry and Fergus Ewing insisted that Scotland was well-equipped to cope with coronavirus and urged people to follow the advice of NHS Scotland to reduce the risk of infection and transmission.
Ms Freeman said the advice to people who thought they had symptoms was to stay at home and contact NHS24 or their GP and that evidence from around the world suggested that for the vast majority of those infected the symptoms would be "very mild".
The number of cases across the UK currently stands at 53.
Related articles: NHS Highland confirms the set up of coronavirus testing centres at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness
