WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO HIDE?

Secrecy fears around Omicron cases echo concerns about Nike conference that marked Covid arrival in Scotland

PUBLIC safety is at risk because key details about Scotland’s first Omicron variant outbreak are being kept secret, ministers have been warned.

A tenth Scottish case of the variant first identified in southern Africa was confirmed yesterday.

The Scottish Government has refused to answer basic questions about the outbreak in the Lanarkshire and Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board areas.

MSPs in the areas affected compared the secrecy to the first Scottish cases of coronavirus last year at a Nike conference in Edinburgh, when the public were not informed quickly of key details.

Ministers have so far said only that the current cases relate to ‘a single private event’ on November 20, that they all tested positive on or around November 23 and that no one had a recent travel history or links to people who had travelled to the affected African countries.

But the Government has refused to say whether the event was in a public venue, like a bar or restaurant, or a private venue such as a house.

It also has not disclosed how many guests attended or whether all guests have been tested, citing ‘the risk of patient identification’.

It also refuses to confirm if it is thought that the original source of the variant has been detected, or whether someone who brought the variant to Scotland may not have been tested and could be unknowingly infecting others.

Central Scotland Tory MSP Graham Simpson said: ‘It could be Nike Mark 2.

‘We don’t even know where the event was or what type of event it was. Was it a wedding or concert, was it a family gathering, or a larger gathering?

‘The Government should be more transparent than they are being and could do that without breaching individual confidentiality.

‘There is a danger of this variant of the virus spreading through one event and into the community and the responsible thing to do would be to give people more information so they could protect themselves.

‘They are not being transparent about the only apparent source of this infection in Scotland.’ Labour MSP for Central Scotland Monica Lennon said: ‘They could give a lot more information than they have given so far.

‘Is there a local incident management team? If so, who is chairing it? Our health board is at code black, the highest level of risk, so there are concerns. If it is the case it has been contained then that could put a lot of minds at rest.

‘It doesn’t look like the Government has learned lessons from the Nike conference in Edinburgh.

‘People respect that patient confidentiality has to be respected but they need to give more detail.

‘Was it a private event? Was it a restaurant? They could give that information without breaching confidentiality.

‘They need to be transparent about that because it is in the public interest for it to be confirmed.’

It came as UK Health Security Agency chief executive Dr Jenny Harries said it is ‘very likely that we will find more cases [of Omicron] over the coming days’.

Scotland’s first recognised outbreak of Covid was traced to a Nike conference in Edinburgh’s Hilton Carlton hotel between February 25 and 27 last year.

It had delegates from Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Holland.

Public Health Scotland said a single case among the 71 delegates led to 38 further infections.

It was reported to Health Protection Scotland on March 2 last year, the day after Scotland’s first confirmed case of Covid-19 was announced but became public only following a BBC Disclosure investigation last May.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon later hit back at claims of a coverup, saying details were not made public because of patient confidentiality guidelines. She also said she understood the concerns over the way information about the conference cases was handled.

‘They need to be transparent’