Nicola Sturgeon urges employers to allow staff to work from home as Omicron spread continues

Nicola Sturgeon has urged employers to enable staff to work at home as cases of the new Covid variant rise in Scotland.

Around four per cent of cases in Scotland are likely to be Omicron, with that figure “steadily rising”, the first minister said.

In an update to Parliament, Sturgeon said all current restrictions would remain and further measures such as an extension to vaccine passports could not be ruled out.

Contact tracing will now be enhanced in Scotland, with household contacts of close contacts of positive cases told to test and isolate.

She told employers that if they had staff working from home at the start of the pandemic they should enable them to do so again until at least the middle of January.

It comes after more than a tenfold increase in Omicron cases over the last week.

A total of 28 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the overall number to 99.

Sturgeon said: “A still low – at around four per cent – but steadily rising proportion of cases also now show the S gene drop out that is indicative of Omicron.

“Our estimate at this stage is that the doubling time for Omicron cases may be as short as two to three days, and that the R number associated with the new variant may be well over 2.”

She added that she “would expect to see a continued and potentially rapid rise in cases in the days ahead and for Omicron to account for a rising share of overall cases”.

The first minister said a variant that is “more transmissible than Delta, and which has even a limited ability to evade natural or vaccine immunity, has the potential to put very intense additional pressure on the health service”.

“The sheer weight of numbers of people who could be infected as a result of increased transmissibility and some immunity evasion will create this pressure even if the disease the new variant causes in individuals is no more severe than Delta,” she said.

She also urged Scots to follow rules around testing and self-isolation should they have symptoms, as well as regular lateral flow testing.

“I am not excluding myself from this,” she said.

“I am currently doing a test every morning before coming to work and I will do a test on any occasion I mix with others over the festive period. I will ask anyone visiting my home over Christmas to do likewise.”

Ms Sturgeon also urged MSPs to “lead by example” on testing and she urged the public to stick with restrictions.

“By doing that, we do give ourselves the best possible chance of enjoying a Christmas that is more normal, but also safe – and of avoiding a new year hangover of spiralling cases,” she said.