Scotland’s national clinical director has dismissed the idea of further reducing the Covid isolation period from seven days to just five, warning that it is "far too early."
Jason Leitch said the Government is not intending to back the policy due as it poses risks, according to the Daily Record.
A debate is raging on the correct balance between the time people with Covid need to stay indoors and protecting staff levels in public services and businesses.
READ MORE - Plans to transform Edinburgh's Cameron Toll with cinema, plush hotel and housing
After England cut the initial isolation period from ten days to seven last week, The Scottish Government backed these plans. Since then, further calls to reduce the period to five days have been made as a plea to help businesses recover.
Nadhim Zahawi, Education Secretary in the UK Government, has gone further by saying five days would "certainly help."
Leitch, one of the Scottish Government’s top advisers during the pandemic, reiterated the scepticism north of the border over another reduction.
He told BBC Scotland: "It is far too early to make that decision or choice. We've only just gone from ten to seven. We went from fourteen to ten, if you remember, some time ago. Now we've gone from ten to seven with quite a lot of extra steps in there - a couple of tests, vaccination, all those other things to get released if you possibly can.
"But there's no suggestion yet that we should move to five. They've done it in some limited parts of the world, but the data suggests that's a risk, particularly at higher levels of infection. So we're not intending to do that."
"But there's no suggestion yet that we should move to five. They've done it in some limited parts of the world, but the data suggests that's a risk, particularly at higher levels of infection. So we're not intending to do that."
He said yesterday: "We’ve literally just made the change from 10 days to seven days. I think it’d be sensible to see the impact and the effect of that.
"But, clearly, we’re always guided by the science."
