emerge i think the timelines involved make it improbable. in short, public health scotland is working hard to identify any or all cases of omicron in scotland as quickly as possible and i am grateful to them for this effort. given the nature of transmission, i consider it highly likely, almost certain, more cases perhaps many more cases will emerge. however, the enhanced surveillance does give us the best probable chance of identifying cases quickly and through isolation of index casing and close contacts and targeted testing of then breaking transmission chains and containing spread while we learn more about this variant. that is key because while so much about the new variant is so far and known, it is important we act on a highly precautionary basis. that is true in terms of the steps that government must take but it is equally true for all of us as
citizens, we all have a part to play and this has been true throughout the pandemic, in stemming transmission of the virus in general and let s not forget that while we are talking about nine cases of a new variant right now, 2500 cases of delta are still being recorded each day. suppressing transmission of it remains important but it is important to suppress and contain transmission of the new variant in particular. some of the protections that the uk government announced at the weekend in relation to england for example, a requirement to wear face coverings, are already in place and more extensive here in scotland. at this stage, rather than introducing new protections, we are asking people to significantly step up asking people to significantly step up and increase compliance with existing protection such as face coverings, hygiene, home working, ventilation, vaccination and regular testing. this enhanced compliance
it does indicate the vaccination, together with continued compliance with the protections that are still in place, is applying a firm pressure on transmission and therefore helping to reduce the overall health harms that the virus causes. all of that said, the nhs is still under significant and very severe pressure. case numbers, though they are now falling, do remain very high and higher than we would want them to be going into the winter period. and of course we know that a combination of factors pose a real risk that transmission will increase again through december and into the new year, as cold weather forces us indoors more and festive socialising gets under way. this risk remains very real and if it materialises would put significant additional pressure on the nhs. and of course, the risk has now been significantly increased at least potentially by the emergence of
risk of infecting others particularly if we have the virus that we wouldn t know about is because we don t have symptoms. test yourself before mixing with others and on every occasion that you intend mixing with others. to drop my remarks to a close, the emergence of this new variant is a blow, certainly a potential blow, it is the most concerning potentially the most concerning development in the last few months. we are still in a much better position than we were at this time last year thanks to vaccines. we know what we need to do to stand transmission because we have the night before and we know it works. it is done to all of us to make sure we do it. in recent weeks we have been sticking a bit less strictly to public health advice, now is the time to follow it ridiculously again. get vaccinated,
people arriving in the uk from overseas should be asked to self isolate eight days and take a pcr test on day eight after their arrival as well as on day two. we look forward to discussing that more in future. we will also suggesting the convening of a cobra meeting to discuss this and other issues in the early course would be appropriate. while certainty isn t possible at this stage and won t be possible until we know much more about this new variant, my strong hope is that beyond temporary travel measure is no additional restrictions will be required. but that will depend partly on what information emerges about omicron in the days to come but also and significantly on all of us complying rigorously with the protections already in place to stand transmission. it remains the case that our first and most