ELIMINATING the virus remains the “only sensible strategy” for suppressing Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon has insisted.

One of the Scottish Government’s advisers, professor Mark Woolhouse from Edinburgh University, previously told Holyrood’s Covid-19 Committee that the actual number of positive coronavirus cases in Scotland never fell below 500, according to “very well validated” modelling.

The First Minister has repeatedly insisted that Scotland was “close” to eliminating the virus after the first wave last summer – before infections were reseeded from other parts of the UK and from overseas.

Appearing in front of the same committee, Ms Sturgeon said the strategy to try and eliminate the virus is still in place, despite the new more transmissible variant of Covid-19 emerging.

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She said: “The one thing certainly I've learned is with a virus like this, what we absolutely can’t do is just say we are going to let it simmer at this medium level like a gently simmering pot – it won’t behave like that.

“It will quickly decide it’s boss and it will runout of control and it will start to boil up as opposed to simmer at the level that you decide that your health service can cope with.”

The First Minister stressed that accepting we have no choice but to live with the virus still able to spread in the community is not an option.

She said: “We cannot have that kind of approach – we'll just accept x numbers of cases a year and x numbers of deaths. Even if that was ethically right, which I would question, the virus won’t behave, it won’t play ball with you like that. Our objective has to be to eliminate.

“Even if you don’t quite achieve elimination, it is the act of trying to get it as low as possible that keeps it under control.

“The only sensible strategy for me is to say we need to get it as low as we possibly can – I call that elimination. We may not get to the point where we eliminate it absolutely completely but the act of trying will get us closer than we will if we don’t try and be more likely to allow us to keep it genuinely at levels that don’t overwhelm us.”

But the Scottish Greens have called on the Government to do more to step up testing and support people to self-isolate if an elimination strategy is continued.

Scottish Green MSP Mark Ruskell said: “It is welcome that the First Minister has moved away from talking about suppression of the virus and is now talking about eliminating it.

"The Scottish Greens support an elimination strategy, as pursued by countries like New Zealand, but to get there we need to see more ambition on testing and support to self-isolate.”

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Ms Sturgeon earlier told Mr Ruskell she was open to considering extending the £500 self-isolation payment, currently available to those on low incomes, to all Scots if it can be afforded when cases numbers reach very low levels.

But she warned she does not want to get to a situation when, if cases surge again, the payments will have to be withdrawn due to a lack of funding.

Mr Ruskell said: “The First Minister says there is a limited budget for self-isolation support, but we’ve made the case that practical support can be just as important as financial support when people face barriers to self-isolation, a crucial part of the track and trace system.

“And when restrictions are gradually lifted, workplaces will need the support of a robust testing regime so the virus won’t spread.”