Elgin City players will undergo daily Covid-19 testing along with all other Scottish Professional Football League clubs in effort to help curb acceleration of Omicron variant
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ELGIN City will begin a regime of daily Covid-19 testing for all players starting today.
The measure has been implemented by Scottish football's Joint Response Group in response to the rising number of positive cases of the new Omicron variant.
Last week it was announced that all Premiership clubs would increase their testing provision until the winter break beginning on January 3.
A video conference was then held yesterday between representatives from cinch Championship, League 1 and League 2 clubs, the enhanced protocols announced for the Premiership sides would be extended throughout the SPFL.
A statement read: "The new testing regime will be effective from Tuesday with all clubs in the cinch Scottish Championship, League 1 and 2 now required to undertake daily testing until the winter break.
"Further meetings are scheduled with the Scottish Women’s Premier League and Scottish Highland and Lowland Football Leagues on Wednesday, and a further announcement will be made thereafter."
The exhanced protocol was discussed in light of First Minister Nicola Strugeon’s update on Monday, where she expressed “profound concern” over the rate of spread of the Omicron variant.
All Scottish clubs have been advised to demonstrate enhanced vigilance with public health guidance, including physical distancing, wearing of face coverings while indoors, and to reiterate the importance of hand sanitising regularly.
The JRG has also been in touch with Scottish Government to offer football stadia for use as vaccine centres to help the collective effort to roll-out the vaccine booster programme.
"We are grateful to the clubs for their collective endorsement of these enhanced measures and for the ongoing commitment to achieving full vaccination and booster vaccinations for their playing staff and team staff," said a spokesperson.
Rod Petrie, Joint Response Group chair added: “We need no reminding that we are entering another challenging period in the country’s ongoing battle to suppress and overcome Covid-19 and, in particular, its emerging Omicron variant.
“Scottish football is not immune to the impact of the pandemic and we must be extra vigilant during this especially busy period prior to the winter break. We remain in regular dialogue with Scottish Government and their public health and public policy officials and in order to reinforce protection, we have today increased our protocols proportionately with the challenges presented to us.
“We are thankful to our clubs for their commitment to implement them provisionally until the winter break and are happy to support the effort to overcome the virus through the vaccination and booster programmes and stringent adherence to protocols and public health guidance.”
Neil Doncaster, SPFL Chief Executive said: “The First Minister has again outlined the reality of the Omicron variant in Scotland and I am pleased with the rapid response of our cinch Premiership clubs in committing to enhanced protocols.
“We will continue to encourage compliance with the Scottish Government public health guidance and play our part in suppressing and eradicating the latest variant of this ongoing pandemic.”
