Scottish Ministers are considering changes to the rules on self-isolation after changes were announced south of the border.
The UK Government said that children and adults who have received a double dose of the covid vaccine will no longer require to spend 10 days at home after coming into contact with the virus.
Scots Education Secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said the SNP Government is “looking very seriously" at possible changes to the self-isolation measures in place for children and young people.
The model being for England, where children who are close contacts of someone with Covid-19 will from August 16 be given advice about whether they should get tested dependent on their age, is “certainly is one option”, Somerville added.
She also confirmed plans in England which will see adults who have had both doses of the vaccine simply be told to take a PCR test as soon as possible, instead of having to isolate as a close contact, were “being looked at very closely”.
Under the current regime in Scotland, close contacts of someone confirmed as having Covid-19 are required to isolate at home for 10 days.
But concerns have been raised about the impact this has had on youngsters’ education, with whole classes having had to be sent home after just one positive case.
Somerville told the BBC that at the end of the school term only a very small number of the children who were off school were confirmed as having Covid.
The Education Secretary said: "At the end of the school term, the absence rate within schools was around about 4% but only 3% of that number actually had Covid, the majority of the rest of the children that were off school were self isolating.
“And that, I think, shows why the Scottish Government is looking very seriously about whether we can make changes to the self-isolation measures that are in place for children and young people as we move into the next academic year.”
However, she stressed this “will, of course, be based on clinical advice and guidance”, with any changes having first to go through the Scottish Government’s Education Recovery Group, which has members who represent both teachers and parents.
Somerville went on to confirm changes to the isolation requirements for those who have received two doses of the Covid vaccine were “being actively reviewed as we look at our vaccination programme”.
With England next month moving to a system where the double-vaccinated will be asked to test if they come into contact with someone with Covid, and only isolate if they themselves are confirmed with the virus, Somerville said: “This is one option that is already being looked at, it is being looked at very closely.”
Such a change would “benefit different parts of the population, different sectors of the economy,” the Education Secretary said.
But she added: “We must look at the evidence, we must look to see whether that is the right thing to do at this point of the virus, because the virus is very much still here.”
Somerville stressed: “We absolutely have to balance protecting the unvaccinated part of the population, which we still have, from harm, and maintaining proportionate public health measures.”
