An investigation has uncovered evidence coronavirus may have been brought to Scotland during a conference of Nike employees in Edinburgh.
A BBC Scotland Disclosure investigation found more than 70 Nike employees from around the world attended a conference at Edinburgh's Hilton Carlton Hotel on February 26 and 27, before the first confirmed covid-19 case in Scotland - in Tayside - on March 1.
On March 2, Glasgow Live reported on the mystery closure of the Nike store on Buchanan Street in Glasgow city centre - despite attempts to contact Nike, an answer was never given as to why the shop had suddenly shut.
The BBC investigation found one of the delegates from abroad brought the virus to the Edinburgh conference and infected many other employees who then returned to their own countries.
It's been reported at least 25 people linked to this one event are confirmed to have been infected, with eight living in Scotland.
In our story, which you can read here, we investigated why the Nike shop had opted to close, with a sign on the store front reading: "this store is closed for cleaning and will open soon."
No explanation was ever given, despite our attempts to contact the sportswear brand.
Upon the BBC revealing its findings into the Scottish capital conference, a Scottish Government spokesman commented: "Health Protection Scotland (HPS), now part of Public Health Scotland, and Scottish Government were alerted by international public health authorities on 2 March 2020 of an individual who had tested positive for Covid-19 following their attendance at a conference for over 70 delegates in Edinburgh at the end of February.
"The conference organisers shared full details of all delegates which allowed the Incident Management Team (IMT) to ensure contact tracing of all attendees. Close contacts of those individuals who tested positive were also contacted in each country.
"Investigation revealed that a total of 25 cases within and outside the UK were confirmed to be linked to the event itself or were close contacts of attendees.
"Eight of these cases were resident in Scotland. All were contact traced and reported in details of the number of cases in Scotland at the time.
"NHS Lothian and Edinburgh City Council worked closely with the conference venue to ensure that all public health issues were addressed including advice for close contacts of delegates and infection prevention and control considerations."
