Military personnel to continue working with NHS Borders
The armed forces are to continue helping a health board in our region with acute services after a request for the assistance to be extended was approved by the Ministry of Defence.
Personnel from the Army and Royal Navy were called in to help NHS Borders - and NHS Lanarkshire - in October amid pressures on the health service.
Both health boards requesed an extension the help, which was originally due to last until November 10.
It has been confirmed today that this request been approved by Ministry of Defence.
In total 21 personnel in the will be working in the Borders with their involvement expected to continue until December 8. That date will though be kept under review.
The Army is also supporting the Scottish Ambulance Service with non-emergency drivers and delivering testing through mobile units.
An Army statement said: "More than 450 Armed Forces personnel are supporting multiple MACA tasks in Scotland. These tasks fall under Operation Rescript, defence's efforts to support the UK's response to the pandemic which began in March 2020.
The statement added: "The Armed Forces stand ready to step up and support civil authorities, devolved nations and communities as required in the coming months where the requests meet the MACA [Military Aid to the Civilian Authority] principles."
Dr Keith Allan, the associate director of public health in the Scottish Borders, added:
Meanwhile, the latest daily coronavirus figures show Scotland recorded 17 Covid-19-linked deaths and 3,349 new cases in the past 24 hours.
It means the death toll under this daily measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - is 9,375.
The daily test positivity rate was 9.8%, up from 8.2% the previous day, according to data published by the Scottish Government on Friday.
There were 759 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down nine, with 55 in intensive care, down five.
So far, 4,325,523 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,922,893 have had their second.
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