An adviser to Nicola Sturgeon’s Government is concerned the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow could cause a spike in covid cases.

Professor Linda Bauld also said there is a “reservoir of infection” throughout the UK following the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.

Although infection numbers in Scotland have stabilised, the NHS is still facing unprecedented pressures going into the winter.

COP26, which starts on October 31st and lasts for a fortnight, is expected to attract world leaders and tens of thousands of delegates from across the world.

Bauld, who has become one of the most respected voices on the pandemic, told Times Radio she is concerned about the impact of the Glasgow summit on covid levels.

"Yes, I am worried about a Glaswegian spike, and I'm not worried just about Glasgow... The central belt is interconnected. And we're seeing declines here but we may not be able to hang on to those gains.

“We're trying to open up and everything's trying to operate more normally. Everybody's delighted to be able to go to the cinema or a concert or have more people in their homes.

"This is hard won progress thanks to vaccines and other things. But having huge mass events at the moment I think it is risky."

Bauld, who is the Scottish Government interim chief social policy adviser, also addressed the lifting of covid curbs across the country:

"When restrictions were released in July...they realised there would be a rise as there always is...when you have more mixing, and that would allow infection to be in the community and then as we had more people vaccinated now of course boosters etc, we'd be in a better position in the winter.

“But we're now in the middle of October, and our hospitals are already experiencing a winter.

"And unfortunately, we didn't have the rise in the summer which might have settled down - certainly in England.

“So it is a huge experiment. We have a reservoir of infection in this country and it's largely in teenagers, and I think that's the bit of the jigsaw, which is really causing big problems at the moment because of course those cases are seeping through now to older age groups."

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