Coronavirus (COVID-19): test, trace, isolate, support strategy

Conclusion

29. "Test, trace, isolate, support" is not a quick fix or an easy answer. However, it has a vital role to play, alongside other public health measures such as physical distancing and good hand and respiratory hygiene, to enable us together to maintain low levels of community transmission of COVID-19 as we seek to ease lock-down restrictions.

30. Everyone in Scotland will have a part to play. We must be willing to continue physical distancing outside our homes. We must continue to observe good hand and respiratory hygiene. We must prepare for the possibility of having to self-isolate for 14 days in order to protect others because a close contact – whether someone we know well, or someone we have only spent time with once – has been diagnosed with COVID-19. We must all be ready to come forward for testing, if we need it.

31. "Test, trace, isolate, support," along with other public health interventions to reduce the risk of transmission, is likely to be part of life in Scotland until a vaccination programme for COVID-19 has been delivered. Our approach will develop over time to reflect new insights into the disease, and learning about the delivery of "test, trace, isolate, support" in Scotland and around the world.