Publication - Advice and guidance
Coronavirus (COVID-19): shielding support and contacts
Details of shielding support for people to arrange for food and medicine deliveries, and other support services.
Overview of 'shielding'
We are asking people in the shielding group to take extra steps to reduce their risk of catching coronavirus.
Our advice is to keep shielding until at least 31 July 2020. Our advice is to:
- stay at home as much as possible
- avoid going places that are indoors
- only leave home to be active or meet with people from another household outdoors
- keep 2 metres away from everyone, even people from the same household
Before going outside, read the guidance on how to stay safe outdoors.
For now, we ask that people living in a residential care or nursing home remain indoors. We also ask that they do not meet up with people from other households.
It is up to individuals whether to follow this advice. However, the Chief Medical Officer strongly urges that they do.
We will continue to support those who have been asked to shield until at least the end of July. This includes:
- priority access to supermarket delivery slots
- weekly grocery boxes
- prescription deliveries
- access to cash
Contact the national COVID-19 helpline on 0800 111 4000 if you need support with shielding.
Why we are doing this
We know that shielding is hard. At the moment, it’s still the best way for those in the highest risk group to stay safe from coronavirus.
We are basing our advice on evidence. It has been agreed by our clinical and scientific advisory groups. We do not plan to ask people to shield forever, but it will take time to move to a new approach.
On 8 June, we published Shielding: a way forward for Scotland. It explains, in more detail, why we have been able to change our advice on going outdoors. It also gives reasons for asking people in this group to keep shielding until at least 31 July.
Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis contains updates to our shielding advice.