THE Scottish government has been urged to follow in the footsteps of the Faroe Islands and transform salmon and marine testing facilities into coronavirus testing sites.

Professor Pal Weihe, chief physician of the small north-Atlantic archipelago, said that a world-leading approach to testing for Covid-19 could be easily replicated in Scotland. 

Prior to cases being detected in Europe, laboratories in the Faroe Islands previously used to test the nation’s salmon exports were repurposed to carry out human testing for the virus. 

The high capacity now available to the Faroes is largely due to preparations being put in place as early as January to deal with the virus.

The self-governing Danish territory now has the capacity to test as much as one per cent of its population every day and has not reported any new cases since last week as a result of rigorous testing and contact tracing.

Doctors have now tested more than 10 per cent of the 61,000 or so residents in the Faroes, with no deaths in the country and schools expected to reopen from next week. 

Those behind the strategy say that this success is largely owed to the early emphasis on testing and tracing, as well as the use of diverse facilities.  

Speaking to the Morning Star, Prof Weihe said: “People were initially quite surprised, but they got an explanation from clinicians.

“The technique was developed to identify a virus in a salmon — a virus in a salmon or in a human is the same technique. It could be done everywhere — in Scotland as well. This is really simple equipment, it is everywhere in Scotland.”

He said that the Faroes are “very like” Scotland and it was just a question of “turning it on and starting testing.”

Scottish Greens MSP John Finnie said: “This innovative approach adopted by the Faroese certainly seems to have been effective, and I’d urge the Scottish government to consider whether a similar initiative might be practical here.”

Leaders of the salmon industry told the Star that they would look at “any possible ways” to help curb the spread of coronavirus.

The Scottish government had not responded to the Star’s request for comment at the time of publishing.