Nicola Sturgeon to give Covid update as Army called in to help NHS

The First Minister will give an update on the state of the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland as the Army is called in to ease pressure on the NHS.

Nicola Sturgeon will speak in parliament on Tuesday afternoon as more than 1000 people remain in hospitals across the country with Covid-19.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed it had been asked to help deal with a crisis in ambulance waiting times.

A total of 1088 people were in hospital on Sunday with recently confirmed Covid-19, a rise of 14 overnight, with 97 patients in intensive care.

With a shortage of beds and ambulances queueing up across the west of Scotland, closing the NHS Louisa Jordan, Scotland’s temporary emergency critical care hospital, may be “one of the worst decisions” made during the pandemic, a GP has said.

“You’ve got an NHS that works, before the pandemic, at maximum capacity, then when you suddenly have the crisis of a global pandemic, you don’t have sufficient beds,” Dr John Montgomery told STV News.

Sturgeon apologised to people who had endure long waits for ambulances, including the family of 65-year-old Gerard Brown, the Glasgow man who died while waiting 40 hours for treatment.

Dr Sandesh Gulhane, shadow cabinet secretary for health and an NHS doctor, said he saw double the amount of patients he would normally have seen in pre-pandemic times last week.

Children in Scotland aged between 12 and 15-year-olds are now being offered one dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine as drop-in clinics opened on Monday.

Next week, letters will be sent to all children in the age group inviting them to an appointment.

Sturgeon is expected to give her update at around 2.20pm in Holyrood.