Test and Protect to control the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19)

From today, if you have any of the symptoms of COVID-19 – a new continuous cough, temperature or loss or change of taste or smell – you should immediately visit NHS Inform or call 0800 028 2816 if you can’t get online.

It is really important to do this as soon as you suspect you have symptoms.

The quicker the NHS can tell if you have the virus, the better chance there is of halting its spread.

When you contact the NHS you will be able to book a test.

Further details of how this will work in the Western Isles will be announced shortly.

While you wait for that result, it is important that you and everyone in your household self –isolates.

If you test positive, you will need to self-isolate for 7 days, and your household for 14.

That has always been the case.

What’s new is that now, as lockdown measures are eased, in order to keep the virus suppressed, there will be tracing of close contacts with advice to isolate - with support - for 14 days.

So if you get a positive test result you will be asked who you have been in close contact with.

This includes people in your household, people you have had direct face to face contact with for any length of time, and those you have been within two metres of for 15 minutes or more.

This NHS system is entirely confidential, when the people you have been near are contacted they will not be told who it is that they have been in contact with.

This information is only collected and used by NHS Scotland for the purposes of tracing your contacts.

The Scottish Government will not have access to it.

You can find guidance on the Scottish Government website to help you self-isolate, which includes advice on what to do if you care for someone who is shielding, and how you can access food and medicine.