Coronavirus: The beginning of a solution to the virus crisis

Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon detailed the TTI strategy at the daily coronavirus briefing

By Brian Taylor
Political editor, Scotland
@tannadicelad

In our lifetime, we have had to get used to a bewildering array of acronyms. Especially in this digital age. LOL and ROFL among them.

Now, enter a new one. Stand by for TTI. Unlike the social media shorthand, I can translate that one with ease: it means Test, Trace, Isolate.

We will all come to know about TTI only too well. I suspect we may come to loathe it, even although today it appears to offer the beginnings of a solution to the coronavirus crisis.

To be entirely fair to the first minister, she made no attempt to sugar the pill when introducing us to TTI. Firstly, she explained that it was very far from a panacea.

It was, she said, but one tool - albeit a significant one - in the continuing armoury which will be needed to counter Covid-19. Alongside social distancing, face coverings, hygiene and the rest.

It was only feasible once the virus had been thoroughly suppressed and the R (Reproduction) number driven well below 1 - and kept there.

Even then, TTI would be demanding. It would require us to disrupt our lives yet again, perhaps still further. It would be a tough call to comply.

So what is this function which has now - or is about to - come among us?

OK, say you feel a bit dodgy, post the easing of strict lockdown. You think you might have Covid-19 symptoms. You self-isolate and you arrange a test via the NHS.

Meanwhile, your contacts - proximity people - will be traced. If your test is positive, then they will all be asked to isolate for 14 days to prevent further spread.

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And if one of that cohort develops symptoms? Why, then, the whole process starts up again, with the same sequence - but perhaps different players.

But, hey, if you endure this once, it's all over, eh? Wrong. Nicola Sturgeon told us that an individual might have to isolate on multiple occasions, if several of their contacts developed the disease.

Told you she wasn't glossing it.

But wasn't it meant to be Test, Trace, Isolate - and Support? It was indeed - and it is. It's the title of the paper published today. But the support bit is to enable you to comply with isolation. Perhaps by helping you move away from your populous family home.

As the first minister said, there has been extensive emphasis upon the need for ministers to boost the capacity to test and trace. She said that was under way - with the objective of recruiting many more contact tracers and boosting daily test capacity to 15,500, as a minimum, by the end of the month.

There had been comparatively little attention paid to isolation. Stay at home. Stay away from everyone. Don't go out, even for basic exercise. Don't pass Go. Don't collect £200.

And, what is more, these TTI rules will have to stay in place, according to today's published document, until a coronavirus vaccine is found.

Tough, as I said. But Ms Sturgeon said that the alternative was to remain in permanent lockdown. And that was no alternative at all - given that it would risk obliterating the economy and our social structure.

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But why tell us about this before it is needed? Before it is promulgated? Precisely because it is tough. The first minister wants us to absorb the content, to accommodate to the concept - and to get ready.

At today's briefing, she was asked whether she and the prime minister saw eye to eye on coping with Covid-19.

Speculation of differences arise from Boris Johnson's rather different demeanour.

He declared that the pandemic had passed its peak. Ms Sturgeon demurred, suggesting only that a plateau had been neared.

He's preparing a document on techniques whereby we might return to work. Ms Sturgeon welcomed the notion - and internal sight of the UK draft plan - but she warned that Scotland would need a system which matched the Scottish set-up, in business, schools and elsewhere.

Still, she also said that she was actively seeking a common approach. One can see why: a disparate approach might risk putting out conflicting and confusing messages to the citizenry.

But she would not, she said, endorse a plan which, in her view, did not meet Scotland's needs. So might she have to rein the PM in - or refuse to implement a package which she regards as premature?

She might indeed. But she argued that, despite the rhetoric, there was less that divided her from the PM than might appear to be the case. Mr Johnson had repeatedly stressed, as had she, that the primary concern was to combat coronavirus.

She thought that taking the brake off too swiftly would risk sending the spread of coronavirus soaring once more. And she was "pretty sure" that was the approach adopted by other leaders.

So get ready for TTI. But for now, said the FM, stick to the rules and observe lockdown.

Professor Jason Leitch, the Scottish clinical director, put things rather well, as is his wont. For now, nothing changes.

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