The Scottish Government has announced details of sectors that are eligible to apply for exemption from self-isolation.

Initially, this is aimed at ‘critical’ national infrastructure roles where staff shortages are in danger of putting essential services, such as health and social care, transport and the provision of food supplies at risk.

There are 13 sectors where employers will be allowed to apply for temporary isolation exemptions.

These include health, energy, defence, chemicals, government, food, transport and emergency services (full list still to be published).

Under this new process, before a staff member who is a close contact of a positive case can return to work, they must fulfil the following criteria:

• be fully vaccinated, having had their second dose at least 14 days before exposure
• be asymptomatic, and be in possession of a valid vaccination record (available from NHS Inform here)
• have evidence of a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test
• return a daily negative lateral flow test for up to 10 days after exposure
• fully comply with any PPE requirements, hand hygiene and other infection control measures

Applications can be made via the Scottish Government website and will be required to demonstrate:

• that the organisation meets the definition of CNI as set out here Critical National Infrastructure | CPNI
• how self-isolation is impacting critical functions and services
• what steps have already been taken to address this pressure
• the impact of no action
• the scope of the requested exemption – location, number of staff etc
• whether they are currently engaging with a local IMT regarding outbreak management

Health, social care and local services will have a different process and this will be communicated separately.

The full Scottish Government release can be found here.