Scotland should include Ireland in managed quarantine arrangements to stop a third wave of deadly covid, government adviser Jason Leitch said.
The national clinical director said the “favoured solution” is to involve the whole of the UK and the Republic, which already operate a common travel area.
Leitch gave his view to MSP scrutinising the government’s covid response and proposals to monitor travellers arriving in the country.
It followed First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement Scotland will diverge from the UK on quarantine to make it stricter north of the border.
Prof Leitch said: “The public health advice would be that a five-country solution would be the favoured solution – you can imagine why, it’s not rocket science.
“Dealing with any access, via Dublin, from another country would be helpful to us.”
He said if an agreement cannot be struck with other countries in the UK and Ireland, measures should still be put in place in Scotland to ensure coronavirus does not come back in through international travel.
“I’ve said many times at this committee, it doesn’t matter where your low prevalence area is – it could be just Dumfries and Galloway, it could be just the Western Isles, it could be Scotland, it could be the whole common travel area – you have to keep the virus out once you’re at low levels,” Prof Leitch said.
On timescales for the system, Prof Leitch told the committee there is time for Scotland to react, stressing it should be in place as virus rates in the country drop.
“We do have a little bit of time for this, because unfortunately we are presently exporting virus, not importing virus,” he said.
“Our prevalence is high. Denmark just closed to UK nationals, other European countries are closing to UK nationals, it’s not really a decision for us yet, but as we get this number down, it will become absolutely crucial that we do not import for a third wave.”
