Humza Yousaf has claimed this week is the ‘toughest’ yet for the NHS since the pandemic struck.
The Health Secretary said rising numbers of patients in hospital with covi d and high levels of delayed discharge are putting pressure on the health service.
Scotland’s vaccination programme has been credited as the reason for the SNP/Green Government lifting nearly all covid restrictions recently.
At the same time infection numbers and hospitalisations are rising - even though Omicron is less deadly than feared.
Addressing MSPs this week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the average number of cases was just over 12,000 a day - up from 6,900 three weeks ago.
The number of people who are in hospital with covid has also shot up to 1,996 from 1,060 over the same period.
Giving evidence to a Holyrood committee, Yousaf said: “In the conversations that I've had in the course of this week with health boards, and my officials have had this week, many of the health boards are giving us the consistent message that they feel like this week is probably the toughest week that they've faced in the course of the pandemic.
“We haven't had today's numbers.... but yesterday's numbers, just under 2000 [people in hospital]. Add to that a high level of delayed discharge and many, I was talking to Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership yesterday, unable to discharge people to care homes given the scale of outbreak at the moment.
“And add to that staff absences as well as the accumulated pressure this week. It looks like it's shaping up to be, if not the worst week of the pandemic or the most challenging week of the pandemic from a health service perspective, certainly one of the most challenging.”
In response to the rises, Sturgeon delayed scrapping the requirement to wear face masks on public transport and in other settings like shops.
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