Concern is growing about the impact that rising infection rates could have on Scotland’s care homes, as calls grow for a more cautious approach to easing covid-19 restrictions.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show one in 100 people in Scotland tested positive for covid-19 last week, the highest since December.

Today a coalition of disabled people, unpaid carers and charities published an open letter to Nicola Sturgeon, urging her not to follow Boris Johnson’s route of ending all remaining protections in one go on England’s so-called ‘freedom day’ on Monday 19^th July.

The First Minister has indicated that remaining restrictions north of the border could be scrapped on 9^th August – but ‘baseline measures’, like mask-wearing in certain environments, could still be required.

The 83 signatories to the plea fear that letting cases rise – England’s Health Secretary Sajid Javid has suggested this could be as high as 100,000 new cases everyday – will put at-risk Scots in further danger and even force some back into shielding.

“…the policy focus seems to be solely on the vaccine programme, and the weakened (but still active) link between covid-19 and severe illness or death,” the letter states.

“Science tells us that vaccines alone are not enough. Many thousands are at real risk, especially whilst covid-19 rates remain so consistently high.”

Similar concerns are now being voiced by people working in care homes.

“I’m getting really worried that 19^th July will go down in history as the day that politics trumped science and covid-19 got its big breakthrough to charge towards a terrible vaccine-resistant Omega Variant,” tweeted Ian Cumming, CEO of veterans charity Erskine.

“Why now? After all we’ve done together?”

Robert Kilgour, of Renaissance Care, said that staff had been “real heroes” as they looked after their second families during the pandemic but they were now “completely exhausted and very nervous”.

“We must tread very carefully going forward dealing in a very sensitive way with all proposed changes,” he told healthandcare.scot. “A cautious, step by step approach will serve us best.”

Scottish Care, which represents care providers, said the situation was still “fragile” despite the progress that had been made.

The body says it is working with the Scottish government to ensure there is a “robust balance” between risks and safety in any changes to guidance.

“We fully understand the psychological, economic and physical need for us all to get back to something like ‘normality.’ However, the care sector perhaps more than any sector is acutely aware of how fragile our situation is at the present time,” they said.

Read more: Ministers urged to update care staff isolation rules; In full: Today’s plea for caution from at-risk Scots; Covid care home discharge report ‘not the full story’

Sign up to our bulletin for key health & social care updates straight to your inbox.