Ben Philip
BBC Scotland

Fifteen-year-old Iona is combining her paper round with helping the community deal with lockdown in her Aberdeenshire village.

Despite her role now coming with added challenges such as having to wear disposable gloves, she has made sure her customers know she is still there to help.

Iona told BBC Scotland’s The Nine: “I have put notes through my customers doors with my phone number saying if they need any help, they can give me a call.”

Pauline McLean
BBC Scotland Arts Correspondent

Image source, Endemol Shine UK

The comedian Eddie Large, who was born in Glasgow, has died at the age of 78 after contracting coronavirus.

His son Ryan McGinnis said his father had been suffering from heart failure and caught Covid-19 while in hospital.

Born Edward Hugh McGinnis in 1941, his family lived in the Oatlands area of Glasgow until he was nine, when they moved to Manchester. It was there he met his comedy partner, Syd Little, real name Cyril Meed.

Little and Large formed a partnership in 1963 and initially toured clubs in England. They went on to win Opportunity Knocks and had a long running comedy sketch show on the BBC in the 1970s and 80s.

More than 1,000 people have responded in less than a week to an appeal from NHS Tayside to support critical non-clinical services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Local people have offered to work in areas including catering, domestics, portering, and laundry.

A new staff deployment centre will contact each person to call upon their help when most needed.

The health board said it had been "overwhelmed by the amazing response."

You can listen to Drivetime here on this live page with us.

Image source, PA Media

The Scottish transport secretary has said he is "disappointed" to learn freight drivers have been challenged over using toilets while picking up or dropping off goods and when refuelling.

Michael Matheson has sent a letter to the Road Haulage Association for distribution to its members and regional centres.

He wrote: "This letter is to confirm that there is no public health reason to deny access to toilet facilities to freight drivers (or others) who do not have Covid-19 symptoms of cough or high temperature."

Mr Matheson said it is "particularly important" in the current climate that everyone increases the frequency of handwashing.

And he stressed the freight industry is "vital to our efforts to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on all businesses and individuals".

Image source, A&G Young

Millions of Scottish flowers which were destined for the compost heap have provided a moment of cheer during the coronavirus pandemic.

A group of horticulture businesses turned 160,000 primrose flowers - one for every NHS employee in Scotland - into a beautiful display at A&G Young's nursery in Errol in Perthshire.

Using a tape measure and a line of string they made a perfect rainbow out of the flowers which were unsellable due to the lockdown.

Garry Young said: “Through the sheer sadness and financial losses we all face due to Covid-19, we took pride and had smiles on our faces when making this living Rainbow of Hope.”

Image source, Paul McMullin

Health board chief executive Jeff Ace confirmed the number of cases in the region where the virus was either the primary cause of death or a potential contributory factor.

"Our thoughts are very much with those people’s family and friends at this time," he added.

The health board said it planned to update figures on the number of deaths in Dumfries and Galloway from Covid-19 on a weekly basis on its website., external

Fiona Walker
BBC Scotland

In a car park at a Fife hospital, drivethrough testing for NHS workers is under way.

The test centre at Cameron Hospital near Leven has been open for the past week.

The testing point inside a temporary tent is staffed by four nurses each wearing personal protective equipment including gloves, aprons, eyewear and masks.

The test centre is there for either NHS staff or one of their family members if they are showing symptoms, meaning they are in isolation unable to work.

After making an appointment, they drive their cars into the test area and have their noses and mouths swabbed through the car window. Charge nurse Craig Orr completes the swabs and puts them into a container and sent for testing. The results could be available the next day.

The Scottish government has held its latest Covid-19 briefing, here are today's developments:

• Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that 126 people with coronavirus have died in Scotland
• That's a rise of 50. However, 40 of those deaths did not occur within the last 24 hours as they were delayed due to family liaison issues.
• There are now 2,602 positive cases of coronavirus in Scotland
• 162 people are in intensive care and overall 1,282 hospital patients have the virus

Image source, bbc

• changes to the way deaths are reported are coming - more information later on this
• Health Protection Scotland will publish new guidance on the use of PPE

• In March: 40 million PPE items were distributed in acute settings, 8.8 million in community and primary settings and 4.2 million in social care
• work is under way to help unpaid carers access PPE
• 3,400 NHS workers or their family members have now been tested
• each death probably represents 1,000 cases says chief medical officer

Image source, bbc

Kathleen Nutt from the National turns to the temporary hospital being created at the SEC in Glasgow.

Ms Nutt says as the number of cases increase are there any plans for a second temporary hosptital in Edinburgh.

"Not at this stage, obviously we keep all of this under review," replies the first minister.

The creation of the NHS Louisa Jordan on the SEC campus is a contingency, she explains.

It is entirely possible that the NHS Louisa Jordan will not be needed, she says, adding that is what she hopes will be the case.

Mark MacLaughlin from the Times asks about the use of small labs for testing rather than the larger, centralised NHS facilities.

We are focusing on NHS labs as a priority because issues around due diligence and quality can be sorted more quickly, Ms Sturgeon states.

But she adds the government is also exploring using the smaller labs.

The chief medical officer confirms universities across Scotland are being involved in discussions.

Ms Sturgeon says all of the government's efforts right now are about trying to ensure we don't get to a situation where more people need intensive care than we have capacity for.

That is why all efforts are being made to build up capacity for ICU and why we are asking people to comply with rules about staying at home to reduce the peak and take the strain off the NHS, adds the first minister.

She says in a number of weeks there should be 1,000 ventilators available.

In the interim the repurposing of theatre anaesthetic machines to use as ventilators is under way.

The next question is about an exit strategy from lockdown and concerns about social unrest as it continues.

"I don't want the country to be under these lockdown measures for a single minute longer than is necessary," replies the first minister.

But we also don't want to end it too early if it will result in the virus flaring up again, she says.

It is not possible right now to say when it will be and how it will happen, she adds.

Ms Sturgeon appreciates it is hard which is why she is trying to be as transparent as possible with the public.

Then asked about changes to the reporting of deaths, she says it is important these are as accurate as possible.

Chris Musson from the Sun asks why the 40 deaths which are not from yesterday did not come to light earlier, asking if the government lose track of the figures.

It doesn't mean that, the first minister says.The info coming later will show that is not the case, she says.

Ms Sturgeon explains that when people are in hospital dying, family members are not with them, so it takes longer for them to be informed, because before deaths are published family members must be notified and consent must be sought.

She says this incident should not arise in future and there will be complete transparency and accuracy in death reporting going forward.

A further question on this issue from Severin Carrell from the Guardian who points out the first minister has said this was due to one laboratory.

The first minister says she is trying to be as transparent as possible and won't go into detail until the information is verified.

"I want to be as transparent around this as I possibly can be," she says.

We want to be very clear about these daily figures, she concludes.

Ms Sturgeon says prisons and staffing are being monitoring regularly.

We don't want to release prisoners early if we don't have to and it will be a last resort, the first minister says.

Almost a quarter of Scottish Prison Service (SPS) staff are currently absent from work amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Simon Johnson, of the Telegraph, returns to testing and says NHS staff are needlessly self-isolating.

Is the 3,400 figure, for the number of Scottish NHS staff and their family tested, far too low, asks Mr Johnson.

We can only test the numbers we have the capacity to test, points out the first minister.

Again she stresses every effort is being made to increase capacity.

Ms Sturgeon says of course testing NHS and social care staff is important.

However, she says it is important to be clear that as the virus spreads it will not work out that testing will necessarily get people back to work more quickly, because it will be found out that many of those tested have the virus.

"We will continue to focus on building up the capacity as quickly as possible," she says.

The Scottish government is doing its own procurement of ventilation equipment and testing, the first minister confirms.

She says orders will be fulfilled in the coming weeks.

In addition we are taking part in four-nation procurement which the UK government is leading on, she states.

A new testing lab in Glasgow, which will be operational in the next couple of weeks, is a result of this four-nation approach, she adds.