THERE continues to be a lot of uncertainty around the increasing spread of the coronavirus because of the new variant that was first discovered in India.

Despite the UK having one of the world's best and most efficient vaccine rollout programmes, cases are again on the rise.

The difference this time is that the increase in cases does not seem to be being met by as many hospitalisations as before.

With that in mind, we have seen some cautious reopening from the Scottish Government. While many parts of Scotland are now at Protection Level 1, Clackmannanshire remains at Level 2 due to the relatively high number of cases seen locally. This has removed local travel restrictions, most businesses can reopen, albeit still with restrictions in place, and now means that people can meet family and friends inside their own homes.

But despite the encouraging signs of reopening, the depute first minister recently confirmed that the SNP are intent on trying to push through an extension of Covid laws. These sweeping new powers are not due to expire until the end of September, yet the Scottish Government want to extend them until the end of March 2022. This means Scottish ministers would have held these powers for two years.

And what makes this worse is that they are trying to push this extension through in just a few short days as we near the end of the current parliamentary session. We do not have any idea how the Covid situation will have developed in a few weeks, never mind by the end of September. This is completely unjustified and there would be sufficient time to consider whether an extension is necessary after parliament returns from the summer recess.

Another worrying Covid development was the revelation by The Times last week that Public Health Scotland (PHS) are required to determine whether any research they undertake is critical of the Scottish Government. This draws into question the information in a new report that they recently published. There would seem to be a clear conflict of interest given the responsibility PHS has to protect the Scottish Government from criticism.

This report gave no information on what percentage of homes suffered an outbreak after receiving a Covid-positive patient. It had already been delayed and, when it was released, journalists were only given fifteen minutes to look over it before the first minister's daily briefing. The first minister then made misleading statements that there was no 'statistical evidence' to show a link between Covid-positive discharges and care home outbreaks.

We need to see some transparency from the Scottish Government on this issue. Those families who have lost loved ones during this pandemic deserve real answers to these questions about what went wrong – not spin and deflection from the SNP.

We need a properly independent report that can assess why more than 3,000 people tragically lost their lives in our care homes and whether anything could have been done differently.

The Scottish Conservatives will continue to hold the SNP to account over their response to the virus in the weeks and months ahead.