Coronavirus (COVID-19): shielding - a way forward for Scotland

Evidence

Initially, the four Chief Medical Officers decided on the shielding group based on the evidence available on Covid-19, knowledge of other infectious respiratory diseases and taking a precautionary approach. As we understand more about the virus and how it impacts people we will keep updating our guidance where we need to do so.

The Scottish Government has been taking advice from a range of clinicians and scientists. These advisors meet on a regular basis and support our Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer and National Clinical Director in providing advice to Ministers on how we deal with the virus in Scotland. We also share evidence across the four nations so we can learn from each other.

We have taken the approach of being open and transparent in the evidence we are using to assess the risk from the virus. We are publishing our modelling of the epidemic in Scotland, and the levels of infection in the community, on a weekly basis.^[8],[9],[10]