The end of free testing for all Scots will be a "real transition" in how we deal with Covid-19, the national clinical director said.
Free PCR and lateral flow tests in Scotland will end on April 17, a day before legal restrictions on face masks are expected to be lifted.
Professor Jason Leitch told BBC's Good Morning Scotland that despite the change the virus will still be under cautious surveillance.
He added that there would still be "quite a lot of testing" in healthcare settings, but only people in at-risk groups will still be able to get free at-home tests.
"The legal requirement to do those things will go, but that's different to saying the public health advice will be not to isolate," Prof Leitch said.
The national clinical director warned that with Scots not knowing "for sure" whether they have coronavirus will be a big change.
He said: "That's going to be a real transition for us, because that's how we deal with norovirus and flu and colds and other diseases.
"Because we don't do home testing for sickness and diarrhoea we stay off work, and we know that we should stay off work for 48-hours after your symptoms."
After the latest ONS figures showed record infection levels in Scotland, Prof Leitch warned that it is likely that anyone with cold or flu symptoms had Covid-19 in recent weeks.
One in 11 people was estimated to have had the virus in Scotland in the week ending March 20.
He added: "Over time that will change, as those numbers fall, and we'll still do surveillance testing so we'll know, the most likely disease you could catch, I hope, in July might be the common cold.
"We're not getting rid of the ONS survey, we're not getting rid of treatment testing and we'll have surveillance in respiratory disease, like we have for flu."
The ONS survey is based on PCR tests carried out by the body in people's homes across the UK.
Prof Leitch added that Scotland "knows now how to deal with this disease".
Free testing in England will only be available to some groups from Friday, the UK Governement confirmed this week.
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