Test before you travel - plea from local emergency coordination group

Residents and visitors are being urged to help protect Orkney’s lifeline transport services by ensuring they carry out COVID-19 tests before they travel.

The Orkney Local Emergency Coordination Group (OLECG) says this commitment by passengers is vital to prevent the county’s transport services failing due to infections amongst staff.

The warning comes as Scotland and Orkney continues to see a rise in the number of cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

OLECG met today (11 January) as part of regular fortnightly meetings to review issues and concerns arising from COVID-19 locally and in Scotland. The group involves representatives from a broad range of organisations in Orkney, including the emergency and public services, transport providers, the utilities and voluntary sector, and reports to regional and national emergency and resilience forums.

Chair of OLECG, Orkney's Area Commander for Police Scotland, Chief Inspector Ali Garrow, said: “Ferry operators have seen instances where passengers have decided to take a lateral flow test on board the vessel – and then have advised the crew that is it positive.

“This really does place crews and fellow passengers – and whole transport services themselves - at risk.

“The consequences of boarding a vessel or flight while infectious could be that vital operational staff are unable to work. With small teams in Orkney this only needs to be a few staff before a service is knocked out, potentially out for several days or even weeks.

“Our plea is simply to make sure you test before you travel, test regularly as advised by the Scottish Government, and have a backup plan for if you test positive on you way ‘up the road’ to Orkney."