NHS Scotland Test & Protect

Envelope containing A4 double sided letter to Scottish households about NHS Scotland Test & Protect from Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, dated June 2020 and A5 leaflet, 'NHS Scotland Test & Protect' by Scottish Government, Riaghaltas na h-Alba, NHS Scotland, NHS 24, Public Health Scotland, COSLA, 2020

NHS Scotland's Test and Protect service aimed to break transmission between people to prevent a wider outbreak of COVID-19. The letter details the new service launched in June and what people should do. At this time to main symptoms of COVID-19 were a new continuous cough, a high temperature or loss or change to taste or smell. People were informed to request a COVID-19 test online or by telephone and being their self-isolation. If a test came back positive for COVID-19, contact tracers got in touch to ask about direct contacts. They would then confidentially contact people and advise them to self isolate for 14 days. Their households would only need to isolate if they began to show symptoms.

An app version was also launched. Contact tracing was stopped in Scotland from 1 May 2022. Many of the restrictions were removed as COVID-19 rates had significantly reduced and vaccines had been rolled out across the United Kingdom.