Covid in Scotland: Health Secretary Humza Yousaf 'regrets' child Covid alarm
- Published
Opposition parties accused Mr Yousaf of scaremongering over the number of children being hospitalised with the virus
Scotland's health secretary has said he "regrets" if his claim that 10 children had been hospitalised "because of Covid" had caused undue alarm.
Humza Yousaf used the figure as he warned that travelling from a level two area to a soft play in level one "could lead to hospitalisation of children".
Medics say children's wards are not seeing any rise in admissions due to Covid.
And they have stressed that there is no reason for parents to worry.
They also say that many of the children classed as being in hospital with the virus would have no symptoms but would have tested positive after being taken there for unrelated reasons, such as a broken bone, rather than because the virus had made them very ill.
There are currently no figures for how many children are actually being treated in hospital for Covid symptoms..
Opposition parties accused Mr Yousaf of "scaremongering" over the risk the virus poses to children.
The health secretary made the remarks on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme on Wednesday morning, when he said that 10 children aged zero to nine were admitted to hospital last week "because of Covid".
He added: "Therefore the risk of someone who travelled from a level two area into a level one area and who took their children into a soft play area could lead to the hospitalisation of children.
"I'm not going to send police out, you wouldn't imagine, to police soft play areas. We require people to exercise their own judgement, personal responsibility, be cautious, know the rules and hopefully follow them".
He was responding to a question about a soft player owner in Midlothian who said it was "moronic" that his facility remained closed because it was in level two, but parents could drive six miles down the road to a level one area and go to a soft play there.
There is no ban on travel between level two and level one areas.
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The following day, Covid Recovery Secretary John Swinney told Good Morning Scotland that the number of children being admitted to hospital with the virus was "on the high side".
Mr Swinney added: "We have to look at all of these factors to determine is there something in the new variants that are emerging that is making it more acutely challenging for children with a greater health impact".
In tweets sent on Thursday night, Mr Yousaf wrote: "My main message was to urge caution, not to cause any undue alarm, I regret if that was the case."
He added: "My quoting of these figures was in response to a question about a parent wanting to take their child from a Level 2 area to soft play in a Level 1 area.
"My clear msg was plz don't take any risks. It certainly wasn't my intention to create any undue alarm.
Soft plays remain closed in level two areas but can open in level one
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health had earlier issued a statement saying there was no sign of an increase in the number of children being hospitalised because of Covid.
It said: "As it stands there are very few children in hospital in Scotland and across the whole of the UK due to Covid.
"A very few number of admissions who test positive for Covid is what we would expect.
"Our experience over the past 15 months is that many children who test positive have come into hospital for something else, like broken bones".
The statement said children's wards were not seeing any rise in Covid, and urged parents not to worry.
Mr Yousaf, who was appointed as health secretary last month after previously serving as justice secretary, was strongly criticised by opposition parties for his remarks.
'Stoked fear'
The Scottish Conservatives accused him of being "appallingly misleading" and said his remarks had been a "terrible example of scaremongering during a health crisis".
The party's health spokeswoman, Annie Wells, said: "By making these claims without any evidence to back them up, he has shamefully stoked fear among the public."
And the Liberal Democrats said children and parents "have enough to worry about right now over lost school days, SQA assessments and economic uncertainty without causing undue alarm".
More than 10,000 people have died with Covid in Scotland since the pandemic began - three of whom were aged under 14, according to National Records of Scotland figures.
They were a baby girl in December 2020, a boy in February of this year and a girl in March.
Regulators have now approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children in the UK aged 12-15, saying it is safe and effective in this age group and that the benefits outweigh the risks.