(Bloomberg) --
Scotland expects a rise in infections from the latest coronavirus variant after it emerged that some of the cases so far weren’t all linked to travel and may have been transmitted within the community.
Of the six people to have tested positive for the omicron strain in the country, some likely picked up the infection from others in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said at a press briefing on Monday.
“At this stage, we know that not all of them have any recent travel history to or known links with others who traveled to the countries in Southern Africa where the variant was originally detected,” she said.
Scotland, which is in charge of its own health policy, has moved in line with the rest of the U.K. to tighten the rules on travel including forcing all arrivals to take a PCR test regardless of vaccination status. Sturgeon said she and her counterpart in Wales are asking the government in London to implement tougher rules so people have to isolate for longer when coming to the country and take an additional test.
The cases discovered in Scotland so far are in and around its biggest city, Glasgow. Sturgeon said there was nothing to suggest any of them were linked to the COP26 conference there earlier this month.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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