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Regulations made using Covid-19 legislation must be reviewed at least every 21 days by Scottish Ministers. This review process ensures that the measures they provide continue to be necessary and proportionate.

Any new or revised regulations are set out to the Scottish Parliament in plenary and are considered by the Parliament's Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee and the Covid-19 Committee Recovery Committee.

Regulations made under Covid-19 legislation are considered through the Four Harms approach which draws on evidence and analysis to assess both current and future direct and indirect health impacts and the social and economic impacts of the pandemic and of proposed regulations. This approach is underpinned by Scotland’s Strategic Framework which sets out our approach to managing the pandemic.

Scottish Ministers also produce a report to Parliament every two months with regard to the status and operation of the Scottish and UK Coronavirus Acts – confirming that they have undertaken a review of whether the provisions continue to be necessary and proportionate.

It is our intention to make it easier for health & care professionals to access relevant information about the person being cared for, regardless of organisational boundaries. We also intend on providing patient access to their health & care information, as set out in our Digital Health & Care Strategy and in the Programme for Government. The ambition is to enhance and improve existing investments in technology to provide digital views on patient records for both clinicians and citizens to access relevant information when and where they need it. This will support urgent care, decision making and improve patient safety.

Our approach to information governance underpins all government business, including our ongoing response to the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government Information Management Strategy and Records Management Plan clearly set out the Scottish Governments approach to the preservation of information, in line with the requirements set out in the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011.

• For further information refer to the Scottish Government Information Management Strategy
• For further information refer to the Scottish Government Corporate Records Management Plan
• For further information refer to the NRS Public Records [Scotland] Act 2011

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03606 on 23 December 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Hospitals balance the provision of beds against a number of factors such as staffing levels and anticipated demand to enable them to provide a safe and effective service to patients. Whilst overall workforce numbers in the NHS have never been higher, increased demand for health and social care services is creating significant workforce capacity challenges.

Recently, capacity pressures have been exacerbated by Omicron-related absences. In the week ending 11 January, health boards reported a 31% increase in coronavirus absence compared with the previous week. On average, 7,174 NHS staff were absent per day for reasons related to Coronavirus, or around 4.0% of the NHS workforce.

We continue to work with NHS Boards and their partners to put in place a range of initiatives to maximise capacity. For example, on the 11 November I announced measures to support people with Covid to stay safely at home and free up hospital beds, including £500,000 to fund 25,000 remote monitoring kits, and a dedicated team which will support the early identification of patients who would benefit from antivirals treatments and get these started as soon as possible.

I am assured that NHS boards have opened all available staffed beds.

From 22 December 2021, adults and children (aged 12 years and above) are eligible to be assessed for their suitability for new COVID-19 treatments if they:

• have received a positive PCR test for COVID-19 in the last five days; and
• have symptoms of COVID-19 that started in the previous five days; and
• are associated with one of the patient groups considered at high risk from coronavirus and with a clinical condition prioritised for treatment.

Health Boards can accept a positive lateral flow device (LFD) test result from eligible individuals whilst waiting for confirmation of a positive PCR test in certain circumstances. The LFD test is not complete until eligible individuals report their result, either online or by phone, and receive a result confirmation notification.

Some COVID-19 positive individuals who meet the eligibility criteria will decide not to receive anti-viral treatments, or may be unable to, for example due to other medications they are taking. Patients are asked to contact their local Health Board if they believe they are eligible for treatment.

There is also ongoing work to proactively contact (e.g. by text message) individuals who may be eligible with a reminder of the access arrangements at the point of a positive PCR test result.

The COVID-19 statistical report which is published weekly includes a section for COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalisations, and Deaths by Vaccine Status. These can be found at this link. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/show-all-releases?id=20580

This reports on the total number of COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 related acute hospital admissions and confirmed COVID-19 deaths by their vaccination status and covers the period from December 2020 to present.

The COVID-19 statistical report which is published weekly includes a section for COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalisations, and Deaths by Vaccine Status. These can be found at this link. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/show-all-releases?id=20580

This reports on the total number of COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 related acute hospital admissions and confirmed COVID-19 deaths by their vaccination status and covers the period from December 2020 to present.

The eligibility criteria for direct access to new COVID-19 treatments was developed by an independent expert working group commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and is based on detailed clinical evidence. The criteria are set out in a UK-wide clinical commissioning policy . The policy targets those higher risk individuals who have the potential to both be least likely to generate a material immune response to vaccines and be at highest risk of disease progression, hospitalisation and death.

From 22 December 2021, adults and children (aged 12 years and above) are eligible to be assessed for their suitability for new COVID-19 treatments if they:

• have received a positive PCR test for COVID-19 in the last five days; and
• have symptoms of COVID-19 that started in the previous five days; and
• are associated with one of the patient groups considered at high risk from coronavirus and with a clinical condition prioritised for treatment.

Further information is available on NHS Inform .

In addition to the direct access arrangements described above for the most vulnerable, coronavirus oral antiviral treatments are being evaluated through a UK-wide study called PANORAMIC, run by the University of Oxford.

The outcomes from the study will enable the NHS to fully understand how best to make use of these treatments in the future.

The results of the current COVID modelling from a range of sources is available in the latest weekly Scottish Government report ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/ ). In the issue published on 13th January we noted that on 5 January 2022, 91.1% of all PCR tests from Pillar 2 Lighthouse Labs had the S-gene target failure, used as a proxy for Omicron cases. Therefore SG have stopped producing estimates of doubling times of the Omicron variant.

The modelling the epidemic has been published continuously since May 2020 and provides modelling outputs on the current epidemic in Scotland, based on a range of methods. Results of Scottish Government modelling, as well as those of the modelling groups which feed into the SAGE consensus, are provided in these research findings. We apply a variety of analytical methods in order to understand changes in behaviour which could lead to altered transmission rates. For example, we use the Scottish Contact Survey (SCS) to learn about how people’s contact patterns have changed. The findings from the SCS are then used to help us understand the patterns of contacts and informs the current modelling to indicate the likely number of cases in the medium term (the next 2-6 weeks). We included the medium term projection of the number of infections in the most recent weekly modelling the epidemic report of the current modelling ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/ ).