Virus tracers have failed to contact almost 700 Scots who should be quarantining after overseas trips, according to figures from Public Health Scotland.
Of the 36,826 Scots who should have self-isolated after visiting higher risk countries, staff at the National Contact Tracing Centre attempted to get in touch with 36,140.
There were 686 cases where the teams were unable to contact the person.
Figures from Police Scotland revealed that the force has only received 19 reports from the health body regarding travel regulations.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton called on the Scottish Government to explain the “glaring gaps” in the figures.
READ MORE: Scottish Government confirm important foreign travel quarantine update - here's what you need to know
Mr Cole-Hamilton said Health Secretary Jeane Freeman should “urgently clarify” the issue.
He said: “People will be rightly puzzled at the glaring gaps in the numbers when it comes to quarantine orders for those coming in from higher risk countries.
“Public Health Scotland have recorded almost 700 people that couldn’t be tracked down but only 19 referrals were made to Police Scotland.
“If contact tracers can’t find people do they just give up? The public need to have confidence in this system and the strength of our measures to catch cases coming in from abroad.
“If the system is lapsing in any area people will be vulnerable. The Health Secretary needs to urgently clarify this process.”
Yesterday, several more countries were added to the Scottish Government's rolling list of destinations that Scots must self-isolate upon return from.
Anyone who is returning from Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago from 4am on Saturday, August 21 will now have to self-isolate from home for 14 days.
It came after a significant rise in the number of positive coronavirus cases in each country.
Failure to comply with the requirement to quarantine may result in a fine of £480.
They also confirmed that Portugal will be added to the list of destinations where travellers will be exempt from the requirement to quarantine.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Public Health Scotland contact 100% of people who are required to quarantine by email and then follow up a random sample of these through telephone calls to establish if they need any information, guidance or other support.
“We have previously said that Public Health Scotland would make contact with around 20% of travellers, up to a maximum of 450 per week – which is considered to be a suitable and robust sample size.
“We are currently exceeding that figure with around 600 contacts per week.
“If the National Contact Tracing Centre is unable to make contact with an individual following a number of attempts, then their details are passed to Police Scotland who will continue with the follow-up process to engage, explain, encourage, and enforce the law, where necessary.
“We are continuing to work closely with Public Health Scotland and the National Contact Tracing Capacity to increase resources and ensure performance can be maintained as demands increase in line with the lifting of lockdown.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel