My message to everyone this week? Stay the course.
Coronavirus is the biggest challenge we’ve faced in our lifetimes and I am incredibly grateful for all the work and effort from everyone so far. However, we must keep going. As of 2pm yesterday, 3,345 have tested positive for coronavirus in Scotland.
Don’t be under any illusion. What we are doing is saving lives. In the next week we should be able to start to assess the impact of the steps we’ve taken on the spread of this virus so far. Then decisions can be made on how we move forward.
But, as the First Minister has made clear, we are in this for the long haul, and there is nothing to suggest we will reach the peak of this outbreak in the next week or two.
At “Casa Leitch” my wife, who is a teacher, has got into the habit of setting daily challenges for the children of seven families we know.
This week they’ve done riddles, among other things. Here’s one for you – you have milk, orange juice and jam in the fridge. What do you open first? I’ll give you the answer at the end.
In terms of our fight against coronavirus, work has started on turning Glasgow’s Scottish Exhibition Centre into a temporary hospital as a contingency measure. The NHS Louisa Jordan hospital will provide 300 additional beds, but could make room for more than 1,000 patients if needed.
It is taking some amazing teamwork to get this up and running, with 450 workers on site on Friday. It could be ready within a fortnight.
Protecting our frontline workers has been a huge focus of our efforts in tackling this pandemic. In the last four to six weeks, about 34 million items of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been delivered to hospitals caring for coronavirus patients in Scotland.
And we’ve introduced new measures to ensure a more regular supply of masks, aprons, gloves and other crucial items. This includes eight weeks’ worth of PPE to all GP surgeries. Delivery should be completed this week.
PPE will also be delivered to social care providers and health boards will have a single point of contact to manage the supply and distribution.
All this frees up more time to do the valuable work that is needed. Because sometimes you have to see the bigger picture – like in the answer to my earlier riddle. Did you guess what it was? The fridge door!
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