Excerpt from Scotsman
With 160,000 positive cases and nearly 8,000 deaths linked to Covid-19, there’s no doubt that after 10 months the virus has stretched its tendrils into every corner of Scotland.
But for some communities, like the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, this has so far been more in theory than in practice, with restrictions in place and very real concern about the pandemic, but no major outbreaks reported.
This changed on January 13, when three cases were announced. This grew to 10 on Thursday, and the situation is now “rapidly developing”, according to NHS Western Isles, with just under 90 people told to self-isolate, not far below 10 per cent of the island’s population.
But despite the “rapidly developing” situation, as NHS Western Isles calls it, Canon John Paul Mackinnon, who has cancelled Mass as a precaution, said there is not an undue sense of anxiety in the community.
“We’ve been very fortunate here for ten months not to have had it, but we’ve been waiting,” he said.
“It’s a small world, and a small country of Scotland, it was always going to come.
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