Call for international university students to be tested

There are concerns international students could be potentially travelling with the virus and bringing it to areas where the virus is receding.

MSP Willie Rennie’s call comes as professor and chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University Devi Sridhar said: “To re-open safely, universities have to... Test all students on arrival and five days later.”

However, responding to Mr Rennie, the First Minister disputed whether these measures would catch asymptomatic arrivals.

Willie Rennie said: “Within the next few weeks up to 50,000 international students will be travelling to Scottish universities, over 3000 of whom will be coming to St Andrews. It will probably be the biggest single influx of people into the country since the start of the pandemic.

“I want to commend the University of St Andrews on their preparedness to keep students and the community safe when students arrive, but we need the government to step up on testing to ensure safety too.

MP Wendy Chamberlain said international students are ‘important’ to Scottish universities, but added: “In order to keep the students, the staff of the university and our surrounding community safe we must ensure that the process is as best as it can be.”

She continued: “The university has made numerous steps to keep the community safe, the Scottish government must now do the same on testing.”