Ken Banks
BBC Scotland North East and Northern Isles reporter

An annual act of remembrance for a North Sea helicopter crash in which 16 men died has been offered online.

All 14 passengers and two crew lost their lives on 1 April 2009 when the Super Puma came down off Peterhead.

Relatives, friends and colleagues normally gather at a memorial in Johnston Gardens in Aberdeen to remember those lost.

They were unable to this year due to coronavirus measures, so industry chaplain Rev Gordon Craig has provided a recorded act of remembrance online at https://youtu.be/e6ZXS0hXAnE

Twelve of the victims came from Scotland - eight of them from the north-east.

Lisa Summers
BBC Scotland Health Correspondent

Coronovirus cases in Scotland continue to rise, 76 people have now died but officials will also be closely monitoring the number of patients in hospital and particularly those in intensive care.

Already more than a third of the beds that the NHS has managed to rapidly free up are occupied. There are currently around 250 intensive care beds available for Covid-19 patients; 147 are being used.

With the expectation that we will continue to feel the impact over the next few weeks, operating theatres are swiftly being repurposed and anaesthetic machines being used as ventilators to create more capacity.

Will it be enough?

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie says he is not convinced there is clarity on which businesses and organisations should continue to operate. This is "causing great anxiety" among workers and employers, he says.

The first minister says bespoke guidance cannot be given for every single organisation so we have set out principles. She says if staff cannot work from home or their safety cannot be assured, they should close.

Mr Rennie says some people self-isolating may be running out of cash so are unable to pay for shopping being bought for them by others.

Ms Sturgeon says councils have been given money to increase the welfare fund and we are working as fast as possible to get cash to communities.

Alison Johnstone says she would like to understand what liaison is being undertaken with the Scottish Fire Brigades Union and the Scottish Police Federation about the sustainability of their services.

The Scottish Green Party parliamentary co-leader points out more and more of their officers are being forced to self-isolate and testing these frontline emergency personnel must be a priority.

She asks when a testing regime will be in place for all our emergency services.

Ms Sturgeon replies that the justice secretary is liaising with both fire and police services and unions.

The first minister adds that testing capacity will be built up and health and social care workers are being prioritised .

Ms Johnstone asks how the government will use the information from testing to better protect the most vulnerable, including homeless people.

The first minister says the government is working hard with councils to ensure vulnerable groups like the homeless are being contacted and are getting the services they need.

Ms Sturgeon says one of the objectives of testing is about surveillance to let us see which groups are being affected most.

She says the new scientific advisory group set up by the Scottish government will provide more granular information for Scotland.

Mr Leonard says comprehensive testing is critical to successfully limited the spread of the virus. He highlights in the last week an average of 754 a day have been undertaken.

The first minister says testing capacity cannot be increased overnight, but we have increased it to 1,900 tests per day - up from around 700 last week.

When we begin to come out of lockdown testing will become more important she adds.

The Scottish Labour leader says concerns about the availability and quality of PPE are being voiced by frontline staff. Will the updated guidance match that from the WHO, he asks.

Ms Sturgeon says the health secretary is establishing an email hotline so any group of workers with concerns can get in touch. Health Protection Scotland guidance available now is quality and robust, she adds.

Image source, bbc

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard offers the support of his party to the government in the fight against the virus.

Mr Leonard says those working on the frontline with the NHS and in social care "deserve our full support".

Frontline staff are expressing frustrations and a real anxiety about the lack of testing, he adds.

Mr Leonard asks how many frontline staff have been tested and whether the government will start reporting daily about how many have been tested.

Ms Sturgeon replies as of today 1,700 tests are being carried out daily and work is under way to grow capacity to 1,900.

The first minister says efforts are being made to get more granular information on testing.

She says the government is working very hard to get more key workers tested, however testing is not a complete panacea for everything, for example if a healthcare worker is staying at home due to a relative.

However, increasing testing for NHS staff and care workers remains the focus and a priority, says Ms Sturgeon.

The Scottish Tory leader turns to PPE supplies, explaining there is an ongoing need across the public sector for this equipment. Will every public servant who needs PPE get it and when, he asks.

Ms Sturgeon says every public sector worker who needs it should have it and "we are working on this on an ongoing basis".

We have healthy stocks of supply of key items, she insists, but distribution is where we have not done as well as we should have.

We have taken steps to proactively get eight weeks worth of supply to GP practices and improved the triage system, she says.

Not every health worker will need all types of equipment and we are making sure the correct advice is there, she adds.

Mr Carlaw welcomes the re purposing of theatre anesthetic machines and asks how many ventilators Scotland will get.

The first minister replies the Scottish government has a number of orders with existing manufacturers in for ventilators which will be delivered over the next few weeks.

Ms Sturgeon says by the summer there will be about 1,000 ventilators.

There is also UK-wide procurement and companies looking to re purpose to produce ventilators.

She says looking at the modelling there is greater confidence peak demand will be met.

Mr Carlaw says there must be transparency within the NHS on who will receive priority testing.

On letters to vulnerable people, he says some people are worried and he asks whether all letters have gone out.

Ms Sturgeon says up to 200,000 people in Scotland should be shielded and it was imperative to ensure this list was accurate due to the restrictions being placed on them.

As of yesterday, 94,000 of the letters had gone out with the remainder going out over the next day or so.

They can contact networks to ensure they continue to get food and medicine delivered she says.

The first minister adds there is a wider group of vulnerable people who must also be supported, including old people, so we are looking at how these arrangements can be extended.

Nicola Sturgeon says after the end of April there will be efforts to increase the number of tests being undertaken and reiterates there are 1,900 per day at the moment being carried out within the NHS laboratory system.

There are a number of other initiatives to increase testing capacity, especially for key workers - through a commercial partnership that is UK-wide via the additional laboratory in Glasgow.

It is expected to be operational in a couple of weeks she says.

She adds that the government is looking at how testing can be used to take the country out of lockdown returning to a contain strategy.

Jackson Carlaw says some doctors and nurses are staying at home with flu like symptoms and the Scottish government has started testing key workers.

The Scottish Conservative leader asks if the target of 3,500 key worker tests a day will be carried out by the end of April.

"Yes, by the end of April 3,500 tests in total will be carried out per day," replies the first minister.

The tests are for three priorities:

1. those with serious illnesses
2. key workers
3. robust system of surveillance to allow assessment of spread of virus

Image source, bbc

On business support, the first minister confirms up to £10,000 is available for small businesses and £25,000 for properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

The first minister confirms £950m will be given to local authorities so payments to businesses can begin from Monday.

She goes on to praise the 41,000 people who have registered an interest in volunteering through Ready Scotland.

She pivots to the impact on businesses and thanks them for complying with the guidelines.

The first minister says the Edinburgh Festivals will not take place for the first time in 70 years, a heart breaking decision but the right one.

The first minister say over the last four to six weeks around 34 million items of PPE have been delivered to hospitals.

This week almost eight million items are being been issued across primary care and social care she says, which amounts to eight weeks supply for primary practitioners.

She says we do have reasonably good supplies of all key items at this stage but global pressure on supply could intensify.

NHS National Services Scotland is operating a triage service to get PPE to where it is needed.

The first minister says we must do everything we can to protect health and social care workers.