Hello everyone.  I'm Benjamin Elder. I'm a senior software engineer at Google And I'm a sick testing chair and tech lead. I'm also on steering and I participate in other parts of the project Michelle Shepardson my colleague Could not make it here today, but we'll have a recording With her portion of the talk.  We'll come back to that Chowdai over here senior software engineer at Google works on sick testing and Antonio Heya senior software engineer. He was at Red Hat when we plan this talk. He's at Google now and also I plan for him to be a tech lead from Red Hat, but Again at Google now, so So this is the biggest thing I've been working on for the past year As one of the most active leads in this space One of our other leads has been out for a while and just you know, folks kind of move on trying to recruit some new Leaders for the space people who are doing the work and them elevated Typically in SIGs, you'll see two to three chairs and leads or maybe just two or three people that are serving both roles However close read of the charter. There's no limits. So Pack the courts get some more people in Figure it out later. So Antonio here and Michelle who you'll hear from virtually are New leads in this project and Tony is a tech lead and Michelle's gonna chair Chairs help organize the SIG run the meetings things like that and tech leads help us with things like spinning up and down Subprojects and providing technical insight for the community as recognized leaders Patrick Oly at Intel is also a tech lead He couldn't make it to this conference And thank you all So what is SIG testing? SIG testing is The SIG that works on how this is what's officially written If you want to look but SIG testing works on the testing infrastructure the frameworks How do we test?  SIG testing helps you run your tests and analyze the results So we have CI tooling. We have log analysis We have test frameworks and we have best guidance for things like how to deflate your tests and we work with SIG release a lot on how to make sure that we're effectively have a test well-tested release Something else I personally work on as well as Antonio is a kind project That's originally Kubernetes and Docker. We're just back renaming it now and just calling kind You know friendly local clusters because we also support podman to a limited degree Which we've been working on so It lets you run local clusters for testing SIG testing built this so we could test things ourselves We've been working on some major updates We've done some pretty big rework with help from the community a lot of help from the community to rework how we Handle reboots so that your search will be re-rolled and things will not be broken if you happen to get a different IP address For your nodes when they come back up. So if you're running on Docker and you're using kind from a current release Should just come back up. It's not follow bug with us. We need to follow up on that We've done some image loading optimizations of the community So we're smarter about we're loading this image again into your into your cluster from a local build and we know that We've already like loaded it before and you just change the tag or things like that we can now optimize out we have a much smarter implementation here and C groups everything about C groups The container community right now is going through a transition from the v1 API to the v2 API And things are pretty different how they work We've done some overhauls in the kind project to make sure that we're like thoroughly compatible with this and we're moving towards the direction of most of the container space which you know Whatever you feel about it the container space is pretty much centralizing on we're using systemd to manage the C groups we're using C groups v2 and This needs to work in kind even when the underlying host doesn't use systemd so we have a couple of Tricks I can talk to folks later if they're interested about to make this work so that kind just works everywhere But aligns with the expectations from the folks working on container run times and sig node and things on how C groups should look how they work and how we run kubernetes and Just generally keeping up with kubernetes kind is essentially a small distro and There's things to keep up with kubernetes does its best not to break users with the api's But there's a lot of details about how exactly you get a cluster up and running If you're implementing one of those tools that you have to keep on top of And now we should hear from Michelle. Hey folks. I'm Michelle. I'm a full-time software engineer here at Google And I work on test grid. I also work as part of a larger team that works specifically on test green and Proud and maintains the instances for external um You also may have seen me around in the sig testing group specifically on the sick testing slack or elsewhere And I am also recently helping host the sick testing meanings that happen bi-weekly as one of the new chairs So more on that if you are interested in the meanings in the link pinned in the sick testing channel on slack There's stuff on the agenda notes and where to actually join the meetings there as well as time Yeah, I just wanted to call this up briefly I'm gonna go and talk a little bit about test grid after this, but I just wanted to call out. I'm Historically have kind of a narrow focus within sick testing on test grid specifically But I also want to get more involved and give a little bit more back to the community that has done like an awesome job here So far So I am very interested and I'm sure other members of sick testing are as well and what you want to see and do For sick testing so is there anything that you want to give us feedback? Do you want more ways to connect with other community members? Is there anything like really cool that other SIGs or the projects have been doing that you want to see replicated in sick testing? Do you have a feedback on stuff that is keeping you from being more active or starting to contribute? Super interested in hearing all of that and I think other members would be as well But yeah without further ado, let me get into test grid a little bit kind of what it is where we're going and More about just how it works in case you're interested in learning more about test grid itself or maybe starting and developing So without further ado That's great is your test results in a grid so a test grade specifically maps Typically the tests as rose to runs as columns And this lets you see a historical view of how your tests have been doing over time in a quick and easy visual format So specifically patterns in your test results over time That's great is also highly customizable So it's really easy to add things like extra information to the column headers here For instance, you want to see a github commit for each of these runs that have happened Stuff like extra things to the wrong names custom status is viewing metrics that have been reported from the tests on the cells themselves or even things like alerting and With an email to anybody who cares about When tests on this dashboard start failing consistently like maybe I want to know whenever the tests Fails three times in a row. I can set up a way to get an email for that Yeah, so those of you who are more familiar with test grid might be surprised to know that test grid has been around for quite a while Although for a while it was internal only back in 2013 Steve seats started Test grid for a team at Google basically in order to get that Visualization of test results over time in patterns for his team This expanded to other teams who also found test grid useful and Eventually in 2016 this led to creating the external instance test grid that case that I owe to serve the Kubernetes community And also other open-source projects at the time though the code was an open source just externally Available instance for folks to see and use And it was also called out I believe in an earlier sick testing intro from several years ago as Basically the only part of the case infrastructure like this that was an open source. So in 2019 we mostly fix that We had a little bit to get from the initial open sourcing to a point where we were pretty solid in terms of all of the code that we have and finishing up a migration but After that we basically have an open source back in and at github.com Google cloud platform slash test grid you can see all of the code that we use to run the test grid instances both internal for Google and external for Kubernetes and other communities and this is Really the majority of the code that we use Even for internal in Google we use this code with a little bit of extra stuff in order to make sure that stuff works with Google The only caveats here for those who are super familiar I Might notice if I don't call it up is that there's a component or two that hasn't been migrated over Into open source, which I think we will eventually get to And then the other part is I called out the back end here But the front end notably for the actual site and server is not open source either That is still internal only at the moment We're kind of planning out roadmap for like the next several years So I don't have a lot to say that's concrete on that yet But I can say we're exploring options and we'll have more to announce on that I think later in the year or earlier next year So also if you have anything that you want to say on this, please feel free to hit us up in the repo itself File an issue or add to one of the existing issues if this is something that you care about The speaking of future plans, I do also know there's some stuff that we are very excited to do Starting in the new year stuff like deeper integrations with prow. I'm getting you to New your test results faster and more directly Getting you the relevant things that you need in order to troubleshoot and debug Also stuff like UI and UX improvements making some stuff that is maybe hidden features or not easy to surface Easier for users to see and making the UI faster and more responsive And easier development both for the core team of us They're working on test grid itself as well as anybody who is looking to join and contribute Yeah, so getting into how a test grid itself works I won't go into detail about all of this But I mainly wanted to show this because I want to show an important Concept of test grade, which is that it is modular Test grade is split up into a bunch of modules that each do a particular job And then those modules have just great inputs and outputs So for instance the config manager takes configuration files in several different formats that might be YAML That might be proud job annotations that might be a Proto itself protocol buffer and then outputs a configuration Proto, which is the global configuration for a particular test grid instance EG test grid decades that I own The other update or so the other modules all work in a very similar way They have some kind of input they output something usually a Proto and then those feed into the other Modules as well so they can all act asynchronously and they can also all swap out as long as the input that they have is correct This is important for Basically letting us be open and flexible So again important till dear here test grid is a bunch of modules glued together by Proto's and sometimes other inputs so again, not to get into too much detail here, but To re-emphasize config merger for instance can take configurations from a bunch of different formats It's relatively easy to add something that is a new format as needed or to make it work with Anything as long as you've registered with config merger where the thing lives So you could have for instance Standard YAML defined in the test in for repo or a different repo You could also hand write your own Proto, which is actually what I did for that Test grid screenshot. You saw earlier is making my own configuration for a demo or you could have something that say you have a 10x 10 matrix of jobs that you need to run in different configurations And you don't want to hand manage all of that So maybe you have a script that auto generates configuration as a Proto for your specific tests and throw that into config merger Config merger understands the format. It will output the global configurations and all these together and then just work with all the rest of the modules This also applies if you want to do something called test grid as a service. So this specifically Again to kind of just hammer home the point as long as the data is the stuff that is needed for test grid to display your configuration and grids You are good to go In this instance, we have something that is running all of the test grid components from the open source code by itself and Just outputting the correct format. I want to emphasize you could also do something like Hand write all of these yourself again for maybe a demo or maybe you have something where you're like Wanting to run a custom Code for stuff like the updater config merger or whatnot Those are all free to experiment with but as long as you have valid formats for all of the data all of the photos Put into cloud storage The shared front end test grid that gets out itself and read this And if you do that with running all of your own components or something that will output the valid format You can get something like the canade of instance basically Knative run its their own components And then outputs it to a particular place in cloud storage Test grid is reading from that particular place in cloud storage and displaying only the Knative results So all of these are scoped to just what Knative cares about from their own test results without Needing to display all of the stuff from every community SIG or other projects that are also on the main instance This is also a great way to do things like local development or he want experimental features So yeah That's a very brief overview of how it works and we're always happy to answer questions about more But the last thing I just want to mention is if you're at all interested, there's a bunch of ways to contribute There are several projects Anything from stuff that we've marked with good first issue to larger projects that would merit some discussion, but we're open to considering like feedback on How to make improvements or improvements that you're interested in doing could be stuff like Autofiling bugs instead of just emailing alerts out Or a rather auto filing issues on github any time that there is a failure meaning certain criteria within Different test grid dashboards maybe routing them to the people who care about them or particular teams who are responsible for the tests There is a lot of stuff that we could possibly do for result parsing And so currently a lot of the result parsing understands Jane it And typically it's uploaded by proud jobs But maybe you want to do something that is a different format that you also want to be able to see in test grid Or maybe you want to do something with the existing result parsing like Add some more things that are specific to the proud jobs themselves and how they run extra things about pods or other stuff that is currently within the test format but isn't displayed in test grid in the Quite the way you want it Similarly, there's a lot of different things that could be done with the summaries right now They have pretty basic info on the tab and test self But there's always a lot of stuff that could be added in terms of more powerful summaries that give things like say additional historical trends performance of certain metrics over time or maybe you want something that is like a really a easy way to drill down into Very broad summary across many many dashboards many sigs that kind of thing And track down What's the most important thing to tackle across all of the things that you care about as somebody who cares about a very large portion of the project Yeah, aside from code. There's also things like we're always happy when people Like let us know what is that are going wrong or pain points with things like filing issues Or just be back in general Maybe you like know about some test grid pain points Maybe you have things that you think test grid does well and you want to make sure we keep doing Or maybe you have some stuff on like short-term fixes that we should get around to or longer term ambitions and like Really cool things that you think test grid should be doing or we should consider taking a look at integrating more deeply with other tools or groups and Anything like that. So yeah Again, we're always open to feedback. You can catch us on the sick testing channel or in the test grid channel itself on the slack And aside from that Yeah, thank you for your time, and I hope to see you all around Cool. Thank you, Michelle. Michelle is not here but Oops if there's any question that you guys are have related to Test grid we can try our best, but the Michelle is no doubt the domain expert So we may leave the answer to offline One thing I'd like to highlight about test grids is that our team had a hackathon week Working on test grid and we did a really fun project in open source we successfully implemented tic-tac-toe on test grid and The source code leaves on my fork of the test grid repo. So if you're interested We can talk about that For that aside Hi, my name is Chao. I'm the one of the tier working on prowl and prowl is one of the important see I told that sick testing is maintaining and as part of the Evolution we realized that one of the problem prowl has is that the build system itself is throttling the development of prowl and also Was a barrier for proud to be Easily contributed by someone who is not very familiar with this system So today I'm going to talk about something we've already done in the Since the last sick testing update, which was the prowl build system overhaul So here I'm going to talk a little bit about the background. So here is what the prowl use prowl has Backend as a microservice running in Kubernetes cluster. It also has a UI. So The nature of that means that prowl source code contains go source code type script hdml CSS all of those stuff and it will also have some Python batch script for gluing things together and when the project was initially established there was a build system needed for Transforming all of these source code into container images and deploy on to Kubernetes cluster and Guess what the build system is? It's basal It's meant to be for someone who is not familiar with basal is meant to be multi language orchestrating system that has a very nice caching feature where you can compile everything Using basal rule and it will import all of those Background backhand tools to help you compile and put everything into the destination. It's pretty good It works really well like very well calibrated and there was very few flaky Flaky issue and it's always deterministic. It works really well unless You want to touch it So if there's any new feature for example Kubernetes Release There has to be someone there to update the basal rule, but the problem is our community The Kubernetes community doesn't have the expertise. So whenever you want to add something or update something something like this and There were a couple of features in prowl as far as you can tell was Abandoned because they were not able to figure out how to update a basal rule So our new answer is We don't want basal. We just want to use all of the native tool chain and This was the project that we did pretty much last year with then I collaborated on this and the native tool chain basically means for go we're just going to do you go build go test and For typescript we'll use all of those typescript native stuff like npm all of those stuff and For image building we use co That was the interesting tool is supposed to be used only by Project that that are written in go because if you have a gold binary Source code, you don't need any Docker file anything else. Just say co publish It will build the gold binary and package it into destroy this image. This is very nice and also by the way they Earlier this year, they also Enhanced co with the S-bomb support the software Build material. Yeah, I don't voice here. He's nodding All right, so yeah, so by by this transition we Got S-bomb by free It was pretty nice and it's a long process I'm not going to go into too much detail how we jump the hoop of bundling typescript compilation into code package, but we had a pretty good Success so the build speed I mean the pre-summit test is a 60% reduction as a result and the deployment speed is 800% faster and guess why Because in the basal era Even though the only thing I wanted to use kubectl apply it will download all of the dependencies From the world like the Python dependency Go dependency every dependencies It'll take like five minutes to download the word and it might also fail because network weakness So right now we we are pretty much Under one minute we are able to deploy everything and People are happy Next I'm going to hand over to Antonio Okay, thank you Well, I'm going to talk about something that is the most Frustrating thing for the people that is starting to contribute to Kubernetes Okay, so it's just an API and you see this list of things Okay, you see a lot of jobs. This is a weird thing because all of this is green but usually there is always one right, okay, and what these jobs are doing is is testing kubernetes and The strategy that we are following for kubernetes is the one-off pyramid and we can categorize in different in different Categories, of course, so the first of all is the verify So we have a lot of jobs that verify what is happening with the code if you modify an API You check that the code generated is okay. We have linters We have a lot of that stuff that unit test it goes through all the files in in the folders and Executes of the goal and test that it finds Then we have a nice thing that is the integration test that it basically creates an APH server an itcd and Run test mocking the APH server against this framework On top of that we have the famous ETA test These are the most we know for all the people because they are the more flecky the more compressed to the back And this basically is is creating a cluster before kind It was a it was only a real cluster But I need to I don't know maybe one hour to run all the tests or something like that with kind I think that right now is in 25 less than 30 minutes to run the whole I think that about 700 tests Okay, and then on top of that there is another Framework that is running that it's not very well known for the cool also for the not only for the developers Just for not only for the new people just for developers to that is the scale test. These are some special framework that is Storing a different Folder that security scalability is maintaining and the run Testing 100 I think that one thousand and also five thousand node clusters. Okay, and What during this year we were improving a bit each of these Categories so you can see in verify this Is This is right now one person working on enable Goal and see I linked this. There is also other person that is trying to lure you to To to review his PR with worker spaces with 82 commits I mean, it's really nice if he can learn that because we have a lot of technical depth and and this PR is going to solve those problems and more or less that's that's the The scope and and the job that we have me in this area for this release or this next six months regarding unit test Right now you can see if you are finding a cap or something that they are asking you to add the coverage I mean this I took a snapshot that rule looks really nice But you see the percentages there are about 30 percent 40 percent We have coverage and this this is an area for new contributors or people that want to contribute to to to help out because I mean It's easy you get used to the cold just start to to get More connections in the community and I mean everybody will be happy to review PR So I think this coverage just trust me and the flakes. I mean we need to reduce flakes by now I think that we are in a good state but This there is always work there Integration so integration was It's it's something that not many people uses and it was It grew holistically so holistically so it was really a mess. So it was a mess in the sense that and When you run the job and the job finish running it liquid about 10,000 gold routines Okay, we're talking about in terms of routine Thanks to boy to avoid it from serious credibility. Now. It's only leaking 10 gold routines but this is an example of of There is no only work on doing or adding new things there is work on you know Improving current things and and this used to be oversight again This is a good opportunity for the people that want to contribute and right now This is one of the areas that is going through Most development.  We have the gingo author that this is a new version history by the one of the sick testing Community meetings and he asked it if we wanted to try And one person they change is here in the photo in the inside he Took he accepted the deal and he was able to land it Thanks to him and patrick and on see and all the people we have king of it too that is being given a lot of new features and and Right now there is a big work on using these new features and improving the e2e testing. There is also a Great effort on writing the test so they can be easy to read and they can report better error fails and Again, this is an area that needs a lot of help and everybody's work welcome to how to to help here And what's Last thing is this It's about this case testing that right now. It's only used by sicker scarabity I don't know if all the secret using it But in sick testing we have the challenge to add a new test to Because right now thanks to Dan Winship. We have nice improvements in qproxy IP tables to To perform better at the scale and we want to know how much better Are we doing? And that's it. Okay. You see we are not the more fancy chick we do things that maybe are not the nicest for a developer, but we are a Funny group and just come join us Join the meetings the channels Okay, I think that's the last one anybody else want to say something Thank you all for coming We intend to have some Q&A time But I think we might be just about out But if you'd like to ask questions before we run out or afterwards we'll be around for questions We have time if anyone has one Hey, sick testing Thanks for all of the work that you've done. I have a question about code that is out of three So there could be changes both in Kubernetes and in this in the out-of-three code and For out-of-three code what we should do is clone Kubernetes to our own test and run them in our own Presummit tests so similar goals for changes in out-of-three code and we want to test Kubernetes so When there are changes in both sides, do you have any plan for ready workers on that? Can you be a little bit more specific by what you mean by like something out of training against Kubernetes? Like what sort of thing are you talking about testing? Okay, so for example if I change something in the QLED that affects a stretch component and I wanted to run the e2e test of the stretch components for a specific CSI driver This is the common problem that you have when you have a when you split out on report, right? That's why I personally against to having an e2e test framework out of report because eventually it's going to go out of scene and There is no good solution or just have to scale and create thousand operation me to submit jobs that there's things in parallel, but You are not going to be able to To deal with the maintenance of that so my suggestion is to have periodic jobs. So at least you know in which In which not exactly the comment, but you can have an idea the in which Time you are external dependency, bro, right? So as an example one of the things that Kubernetes community runs is 5,000 node scale tests, but we can't run that on every PR Similarly, we can't test literally every aspect of Kubernetes and we have like kind of a push and pull there I think for like out of tree integrations That's another good example of run it there test grid You can configure to expose the commit of Kubernetes you were testing against as well as your tool So when we run the 5k node scale tests and something breaks You can you can actually drag between cells and test grid and it will give you the GitHub link to Compare between the commits to give you some idea to where to start bisecting to find that change We tell people Between us and sick release. We'd like you to get some CI running Get it looking stable if you want this to block Kubernetes releases You can talk to sick release and say hey, I have a periodic job that stable that's testing these things after they merge And and it's stable provides good signal This should this should get promoted to informing and then to blocking for the release and the test grid dashboards and then You know when those things break you have signal to do it if you see them breaking frequently Not due to the tests or the infrastructure or how you set this up But because of actual bugs in Kubernetes That's the signal that we need to move this into Kubernetes pre-submit so you're not constantly chasing down bugs So something like unit testing Kubernetes. We're going to do in pre-submit because we know if we don't test it there We're going to keep finding bugs after the code merges But for something like integrating against cuba without a tree provider probably it doesn't break very often we hope and If it does then we should push it into pre-submit testing in Kubernetes All right. Thanks. Hi, um, do you have any plans or any efforts going on for using github actions for testing things in Kubernetes for Kubernetes itself no Our CI that kind of with the project provides a couple of nice properties there to replicate a big one is that we're able to ensure that Because it's such a large volume of chains coming into Kubernetes on some days in particular it can be For these things that will break frequently. It could be hard hard to track down. So the CI integrates with a merge robot. That's part of the CI and Because of that integration the merge robot is aware of exactly what commits of The branch you're merging into and the branch that you're asked that you're asking to merge were tested And we will only merge code if it's been tested At the latest of both of those things. So if something else merges You're gonna need to get tested again, and then we have some optimizations to okay. We have five PRs that are currently Looking good for merge. We're gonna batch test them together See if they all pass if they don't we're gonna fall back to one And we have to run a lot of external test resources System that we didn't talk about today. We have a whole system for like leasing Resources to spin up real clusters out in the cloud and that run it for us our CI system is based on Kubernetes So the system that leased resources just runs alongside the tests as an application inside the Kubernetes cluster Where we're running the tests and these things make it kind of hard to migrate However some sub projects like kind are actually using GitHub actions a bit Yeah, sorry, I should have been more clear my question was more like as a sub project maintainer How can I have more better integration from sick testing if I want to use GitHub actions for some of my stuff? That's probably a question for child, but I'll say very briefly that we've had some discussions about this We kind of need someone to step up and work on things like we'd really like to see for example if tests fail The experience in Kubernetes right now is you can comment slash retest as anyone and get it to run again And because people depend heavily on e2e tests to you know, do integration tests between different aspects of the project Tests fail a lot and these things aren't available But we have some like there's some limited integration of the merger robot and things I Think then just explain the merge robot really well one thing I'd like to say is that I would say from my perspective Kubernetes is not tied to proud if you if we can make it a GitHub action work for all of our workflow I would say let's go for GitHub actions But right now there are things that cannot be done like what Ben mentioned the merge automation is right now is impossible to To serve a project such as Kubernetes Kubernetes, there is just no way that can be Right, yes right for some projects it's definitely supported and The only downside is that we cannot ensure that get up actions test against the latest head Which we do have plan to support, but that's long long on our roadmap It's it's really hard to be honest We will need get up action to expose a lot of APIs for us to be able to trigger get up action on certain commits We only have time for one last question In the sick testing channel I saw that there is this new e2e framework That is led by Vladimir and I am not sure what's the difference with the e2e test binary that comes out of Kubernetes so so that framework is a I don't want to say experiment I think we we start as experiment, but I think it's actually reasonably mature at this point It's just not the one that we use to test Kubernetes itself You know no matter how good that framework is there is an enormous lift to migrate Kubernetes something else We have like thousands of tests And it's hard enough to get people to maintain the messes But we since also that framework kind of grow organically we didn't want the We didn't want to move this out of the project and say everyone should reuse this You should test things exactly the way Kubernetes does the e2e test because I mean I'm actually not a huge fan of It ourselves, but it works. So the out-of-tree e2e framework is a project in the stick to try to figure out Like what is something that is reusable? And it's definitely something you should look at for out-of-tree projects All right, thank you Okay We run out of time, but we can we're going to stay here if somebody wants to come and chat. Thanks everyone


CeCe Sabatheia's Pitchin Foundation has been a staple in the community and most notably the Bronx since he joined the Yankees for the 2009 season. While the Yankees were in Oakland on their last road trip, Sabatheia distributed backpacks to children in his hometown of Vallejo, California and upon returning to New York, CeCe called on a few of his friends to do the same at a local elementary school. I definitely missed him. Him not being here was a little weird. Him not being here. We've been doing this for six years now here in the Bronx and so having DeeDee and Aaron was a good replacement because they were so happy to be here. You know, they have the same heart as CeCe does. They want to give back. They want to give back here in the Bronx is like their second home. So it was a good feeling, but I definitely missed my right hand. It's just awesome energy. You know, the kids always have that fire energy. You know, as soon as you walked in, you know, we got a really warm welcome. So it's just amazing to be here with all these kids and with the P.C.C. Foundation. When everything gets involved in an event like this, it's just fun to be a part of. I mean, the way they do it is so unique and I'm just happy to be a part of it. We started the backpack program just because CeCe's mom said, you know, one of the hardships was for her when CeCe was a kid was paying for school supplies. So that's how the backpack program started to date. We're at 45,000 backpacks that we've given out to elementary school kids. A couple of weeks ago, we were just at high school and we get to high school kids. And it's just amazing how we're touching so many lives. Every backpack that I put on a kid's back, I feel like I touched their lives. This kid said, this is like the best moment of my life. And I'm just like, like, this is an amazing feeling, you know, to be able to have kids say something like that to you is a real feeling. The kid actually said, oh, I'm going to the game, you know, and some of them are really excited to tell me to go into the game. Or, you know, but it's one of the best moments for the kids. You know, I always want to do this for the kids, too. We're here two weeks prior packing all these backpacks. We have a ton of volunteers that come in and support Team 52. But putting those backpacks on the kids' backs is the same feeling I get from the very first day we started the backpack program. They're so excited. I'm so excited for them. I feel like it's a good way to really kick off their school year. But I hope we can continue to do this for many, many more years. I mean, it's awesome, you know, we play baseball all year round and people don't get to see this side of us. So it's something really amazing to give back to community to see that. We really care for everybody around us. We started this year getting ambassadors because CeCe said, you know, I've done I've done everything that I want to do. But now I think as a veteran player, I want to show these younger guys like how to also give back outside. And today we had Aaron and DeeDee and it's just CeCe's way of being the veteran player off the field. It's really awesome to start away and see how they've been doing everything. That's how you learn from, you know. So that's how you want to start something like this, too, for the kids and even wherever you're from, they have to be able to see that we can appreciate that we do everything for them, too. So it's not about us, just about us. So we give back to the community and everywhere we go. So it's just something really great.


I will now move on to the next item of business. Before I call the First Minister, I am aware that details of today's Covid-19 update have been reported in the media prior to being announced to the Parliament. I should not be reading in the media that they have seen a draft copy of the statement before it has been made to this Parliament. This is extremely disappointing and is disrespectful to this Parliament and its elected members. I have spoken to the Minister for Parliamentary Business about this, and he has informed me that the Government will be undertaking an inquiry into the leak. I will allow the statement to be delivered today because I cannot be assured that all elected members have seen the full draft. It is important that the public hear the full detail, but before I call the First Minister, I ask for an assurance from the First Minister of her commitment to the place of this Parliament being respected by her Government and her commitment to a repeat of the situation being avoided. First, I will give you that assurance aside from disrespect to Parliament, which is a very serious matter. I will also assure you that there is no benefit or advantage to the Scottish Government in the contents of the statements that have been known in advance of me delivering them to Parliament. I have asked my officials to look into the matter, and I can advise the chamber that the Scottish Government's chief information security officer will be undertaking appropriate inquiries to establish if there has indeed been a leak of some of the contents of this statement in advance of me delivering it, and if so, what the circumstances and the source of that are, and I undertake to keep your office advised of the progress and outcome of that. I assure you, Presiding Officer, that I take very seriously my obligations and responsibilities and those of my Government to this Parliament, and I hope that you will accept that assurance. Today, I will report on the current course of the pandemic. I will assess the latest data and set out our tentative view that, although significant uncertainties remain both in the data and in the immediate period ahead, there are nevertheless some grounds for cautious optimism that a combination of the protective measures introduced before Christmas, the responsible action on the part of the general public and the rapid delivery of booster vaccines have had a positive impact. As a result, I will indicate that, from next week, we will begin to lift the measures introduced before Christmas but that we will do so in a phased and careful way, starting with the removal of attendance limits on live outdoor events from Monday. First, I will run through today's statistics. 10,392 positive cases were reported yesterday as a result of PCR tests, which is 27.7 per cent of all PCR tests carried out. 1,479 people are in hospital with Covid-47 more than yesterday. 65 people are in intensive care. 11 of them have been in intensive care for more than 28 days. Sadly, a further 16 deaths have been reported, taking the total number of deaths under the daily definition to 9,950. Again, I send my condolences to everyone morning a loved one. The increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant is still causing very high levels of infection here in Scotland across the UK and in many cases around the world. However, while the situation is not least for the national health service, it remains very challenging, there are some very early indications in the data that offer some encouragement. Firstly, while it is always difficult to prove a direct causal link between any specific action or measure and subsequent outcomes, there is reason to be optimistic that protective measures, the behavioural response of the general public and the vaccine programme, have helped to mitigate, to some extent, the impact of the Omicron wave. For instance, our central projection last month was that new infections could reach 50,000 a day by early January. That has not so far materialised and said that we estimate that the total number of new infections a day in early January, not just those recorded through positive PCR tests, may have been around 30,000. In other words, it is very likely that the situation that we face now, though serious, would have been even more challenging without the renewed sacrifices made by people across the country over the past few weeks. Further, while we need to be cautious in our interpretation of the daily case numbers at this stage for reasons that I will set out shortly, we can see from these and also from hospital data some early indications that the situation might be starting to improve. Over the past week, an average of just over 12,700 new cases a day were confirmed through PCR tests. However, that is down by 17 per cent compared to the daily average in the preceding seven days. Indeed, on this measure, cases have fallen in the past week across all age groups except the over 65s, over 85s, my apologies. That is encouraging and it gives us some hope that cases may be at or close to the peak. However, as I said a moment ago, caution is required in interpreting those figures, the changes to the guidance on testing that I set out last week to the effect that those without symptoms testing positive with a lateral flow device no longer need to get a confirmatory PCR test mean that the current daily numbers are capturing fewer positive cases than before. To address this, Public Health Scotland will augment its daily reports in future. I can advise Parliament that from Thursday, in addition to reporting the number of people testing positive for Covid through a PCR test, it will also report a combined figure for the number of people who have recorded a first positive PCR or a lateral flow test. Given the increased complexity, not least the need to avoid duplication, there will initially be a time lag in this reporting, so the data released on Thursday will cover the period up to today. However, Public Health Scotland will be working to reduce this time lag in the coming period. The additional data will allow us to assess the trend in cases more accurately than now. Of course, this is dependent on all of us actually recording our lateral flow results, whether positive or negative, so let me take this opportunity to remind everyone that this can and should be done through the United Kingdom Government website, and you can find that page easily by searching for how to report a lateral flow test. There is one further piece of data that gives us some grounds for optimism at this stage, while the number of people in hospital with Covid has continued to increase over the past week, putting significant additional pressure on the NHS. There are signs that the rate of increase may be starting to slow down. The number in hospital with Covid increased from 594 two weeks ago to 1,147 this time last week, an increase of 553. Since then, it has risen further to 1,479, a smaller increase of 332. It is important to note, however, that the number of people with Covid in intensive care has increased more rapidly in the past week than in previous weeks. However, this is likely to reflect the time lag between people becoming hospitalised and then requiring intensive care. In summary, the situation is just now undoubtedly serious, but perhaps less so than it might have been, and there are also some signs that we may be starting to turn a corner. That said, the position is still fragile and significant uncertainties remain. I have already explained the uncertainties in the data, which mean that the picture is not yet quite as clear as we would like it to be and as clear as we hope it will be in the next week or so. Of course, we do not yet know what impact the post-Christmas return to work and school will have on the level of infection. What we do know is that staff absences resulting from high levels of infection are causing disruption in the economy and in critical services, and that the NHS remains under very severe pressure indeed. Continuing to slow down transmission therefore remains a vital imperative. The conclusion of all of this in my view and in the view of Cabinet is as follows. It is reasonable and right to be hopeful on the strength of the latest data, however, for the period immediately ahead, it is also prudent to remain careful and cautious. That is the balance of judgment that has informed the decisions that Cabinet reached this morning. As I indicated earlier, we will begin to lift the protective measures announced before Christmas from Monday, but we will do that in a phased way that will allow us to form in the days ahead a clearer picture of the trends in infections and the associated impacts. As a quick reminder, the measures that I am specifically referring to here are limits on attendancies at live public events, the requirement for distancing between groups in public indoor places and the requirement for table service in hospitality venues serving alcohol on the premises. I expect to confirm further dates next week, however I can confirm today that the attendance limit of 500 at large-scale outdoor events will be lifted from Monday at 17 January. That means, for example, that spectators will be permitted again at major outdoor sporting events, including football fixtures scheduled for early next week and the forthcoming six nations rugby matches. The Covid certification scheme will remain in place for these and other events and venues previously covered but with two important changes. First, our guidance will now stipulate that the organisers of large events of 1,000 or more people should check the certification status of at least 50 per cent of attendees rather than the current 20 per cent or at least 1,000 people, whichever figure is highest. Second, from Monday, the requirement to be fully vaccinated for the purposes of Covid certification will include having a booster if the second dose was more than four months ago. The NHS Scotland Covid status app for domestic use will be updated from Thursday so that its QR code includes evidence of booster vaccination. It will also be possible to order updated paper and PDF copies of vaccination status, which are now valid for three months, and it will still be possible to gain admission to events and venues covered by the certification scheme by providing proof of a recent negative lateral flow test. Cabinet will next review the data at our meeting a week today, and I hope that that will allow us to lift the other protective measures—limits on indoor live events, table service and hospitality—and distancing in indoor public places from 24 January. However, I will confirm that in my statement next week. There is a related point that I want to draw to Parliament's attention today. As we do lift those other protective measures, it will be necessary to consider again if extending the scope of Covid certification to other venues might be a necessary protection. To be clear, we have not yet taken any decisions on this, and it will require careful judgment, but I want to be clear to Parliament today that it is something that we feel bound to give appropriate consideration to. What I have just set out gives our direction of travel in relation to the additional measures set out before Christmas in response to Omicron. The baseline measures that were in place before the emergence of Omicron, such as the requirement to wear face coverings in indoor public places and to work from home when possible, will remain in place for now. So, too, for at least the immediate period ahead, will the advice to the general public to try to limit contact with people in other households and, in particular, to limit the number of households in any indoor gathering to a maximum of three. We are not advising or asking people to cut all social interaction that simply is not practical and also has a serious impact on mental health and wellbeing, but trying to limit social interaction remains a sensible step at this stage. It helps STEM to some extent increases in transmission and so it has a collective benefit, but it also helps protect us as individuals. At a time when one in 20 of us could have the virus, the risk of becoming infected when we mix with others is, at this moment in time, a significant one. So, cutting back on contacts where possible and prioritising those that are most important to us helps to reduce that risk. If we make sure that there are no more than three households in any indoor gathering we do have and take lateral flow tests before we go, we further reduce the risks, so all of that remains important for now. There are four further issues that I want to touch on today before I conclude. The first is to underline again, as I alluded to earlier, that staff absences caused by the virus are right now having a very significant impact, obviously on the NHS and indeed on the wider economy, but also on other vital public services. Most notably, for the purposes of my comments today, I would refer to social care. We are working very closely with local partners right now to maximise the resources available for social care so that vulnerable people get the care that they need. In order to give priority to social care, some local authorities and partners may require to make difficult choices that involve temporarily pausing or reducing other services. Those decisions, which will be taken by front-line partners, will only be made when absolutely necessary. The recent changes to self-isolation rules will help to alleviate some of the pressure. However, where such decisions do prove necessary, I hope that members and indeed the wider public will understand that they are driven by the needs of those who depend on social care services. My second point is about ventilation in schools and in early years settings. Before Christmas, we published revised guidance for those settings, which included updated material on ventilation, which, among other things, made clear the circumstances in which use of air-cleaning devices may be appropriate. To assist local authorities with that, I can confirm today that we will allocate an additional £5 million of capital funding to local authorities and to funded early learning and childcare providers. That, of course, is in addition to the money previously provided for CO2 monitors and will support any remedial work that councils need to do to improve air flow and comply with the new guidance. The third issue that I want to cover is the continued importance of vaccination, and in particular of booster vaccination. The programme continues to go exceptionally well. Scotland, as of now, continues to be the most vaccinated part of the UK in terms of first, second, third and booster doses. However, there are still too many eligible people who are not yet fully vaccinated. If you are one of them and if you have no good reason not to be vaccinated, the reality is that you are putting yourself and others at unnecessary risk. The latest available data, which is adjusted for age, suggests that someone who is not fully vaccinated is at least four times more likely to require hospital treatment than someone who has had a booster or a third dose of vaccine. Whatever age you are, getting boosted is the single most important thing that you can do to protect yourself from the worst impacts of Covid and in doing so to help to reduce pressure on the national health service. Even though being fully vaccinated does not completely eradicate anyone's risk of getting Covid, it does reduce that risk. That also reduces the risk of you, if you get Covid, passing it on to others. It reduces the risk because you are less likely to get Covid of passing it on to others, including those who may be more vulnerable to serious illness. In short, being fully vaccinated could save your life or it could save the life of someone you love. However, the unescapable flip side of that is that if you are choosing without good reason not to be fully vaccinated, you are putting your own life and the lives of other people at unnecessary risk. If you have not been able to get your booster or a third jag yet because you have been self-isolating or because you tested positive in the past 28 days or because you simply have not got round to it yet, please do come forward now as soon as possible. If you have not had a first or a second dose yet, please do so without delay. Do not run the risk of later regretting or indeed of leaving your family to regret that you did not take the opportunity to get the protection against illness and death that vaccination does offer to all of us. There is right now plenty of capacity in vaccination centres across the country and you will always be welcomed, so please do go along. It is not too late, it is never too late to be vaccinated against this virus. The final issue that I want to touch on briefly today is the work that I mentioned last week on a revised strategic framework. It is intended to set out how we might adapt in the medium to longer term to living with this virus in a way that still mitigates the harm that it does but without the kind of restrictive measures that we are all tired of and which we know do harm in other ways. Living with the virus—a phrase that we hear more and more right now—is what we all desperately want to do, but it is worth reflecting on what that does and does not mean. Unfortunately, it does not mean waking up one morning soon and finding that Covid has disappeared or that we no longer need to think at all about mitigating the harm that it can do. Hopefully, we are on a path from Covid being an epidemic to it becoming endemic, in other words, existing at more manageable and consistent levels. That is not a shift that any Government anywhere can just declare or wish into being. While it seems that the impact of the Omicron variant on individual health is milder than past variants, it is not harmless. It still causes serious illness in some and it still takes lives. This virus, to be blunt, remains a significant threat to public health. If we are trying to live with the virus, as we all want to do, it will involve, for all countries, careful thought and possibly some difficult choices. It involves consideration of and empathy for everyone in our society, including those who are at the highest clinical risk from Covid. We know that we cannot continually rely on restrictive measures to manage the virus, because we know the harm that that does. Equally, we cannot be indifferent to the continued risk that Covid poses to health and wellbeing. We need to consider what adaptations we can make to manage those risks in a way that is much less disruptive to our lives and much less of a daily presence in our minds. Those are important issues for not just Government, but for all of us to consider. As we prepare the revised framework in the days to come, we will seek to consult across Parliament and with business organisations and other partners across society. Our aim is to publish the revised strategic framework within the next few weeks. As that final point emphasises, we remain in a highly challenging phase of the pandemic. Case numbers are high and the impacts of that are severe. Of course, the future trajectory, as I have set out, remains uncertain at this stage. Largely, because of the efforts that everyone has made, we are in a better position than I feared would be the case when additional measures were announced in December. I hope that we are now seeing signs of improvement. That is allowing us to start the process from Monday of lifting the additional restrictions. I hope that next week I will be able to confirm the further steps in that process. In the meantime, we can all continue to act in a way that keeps things moving in the right direction. I will close with a reminder of what we can all do to help stem transmission. First, get fully vaccinated as soon as you can. If you have not done so already, please do that and do it this week. Second, try to limit your contacts for a further period, with infections at such a high level just now. Every interaction comes with a significant risk of catching the virus, so prioritise the contacts that matter most to you.  Take the test as close as possible to the time that you will be meeting and seeing other people and remember to record the result, whether that is positive or negative. Take all the other precautions that we know make a difference. If you are meeting indoors, limit the number of households in the group to three at most and keep windows open. Work from home whenever possible. To employers, please enable your workers to work from home whenever practical. Wear a face covering on public transport in shops when moving about in hospitality and make sure that the face covering fully covers your mouth and nose and follow all advice on hygiene. At these steps, they make a difference. They are making a difference to each person's individual safety and to the collective safety of all of us. I urge people to please stick with them and my thanks again go to everyone who is doing that. The First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 40 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next item of business. I would be grateful if members who wish to ask a question were to press their request-to-speak buttons now. I call Douglas Ross. The latest data shows that we are in a far more positive position than the Government was expecting. The projections in December have not come to pass. We may have already passed the peak of Omicron. There are two main reasons for that. Firstly, the success of Scotland and the UK's vaccination scheme is clear. People who are vaccinated are much less likely to suffer serious symptoms and are far less likely to be hospitalised. The second main factor is the response from the general public. People across Scotland got their booster, took tests, self-isolated when they needed to, they were cautious to protect their families and especially careful around the vulnerable. That is why the data is more positive. The outlook is much better now not because of Government restrictions but because of people's good sense. The people of Scotland got this right, not the Government. The First Minister says that we need to learn to live with Covid, but after two years people across Scotland have already learned to live with Covid. By now people understand what is necessary to combat the virus. We have to trust their judgment far more as we move forward. We should be looking to get a balance that is much more in favour of wider public health and mental health and physical health concerns and, of course, our economy. That is why it is so disappointing to see the Scottish Government again looking to extend its vaccine passport scheme. Scottish businesses, Scottish jobs and our economy are set to be hit harder even though the data is more positive. The Scottish National Party Government has accepted that there is no evidence that the vaccine passport scheme stops or reduces the spread of the virus. On just what evidence is it considering expanding the number of venues that are affected by the scheme and the number of people who will be checked going to stadiums and large events? Which kind of businesses could be impacted by the extension of the scheme and from what date? And does she really believe her plans, which will see more than 30,000 vaccine passports checked at Murrayfield during the Six Nations next month, are actually workable? Finally, while crowd attendance at outdoor events will now be allowed, there is not a single mention in the First Minister's statement about indoor sports events. Those are vital for indoor sports events, not a single mention in her statement. Those are vital for people's mental and physical health. Will the First Minister lift the restrictions? If so, when? If not, why? We are in a more positive position now than we might have been, and I feared that we would be when I spoke to Parliament before Christmas. However, there are still significant uncertainties both in the data and in the circumstances that lie ahead, as schools have returned and some people have returned to work. I think that calls for continued caution coupled with the optimism that we can rightly feel as a result of the more positive signs in the data. As I said in my statement, I think that the progress that we have made is down to a combination of the vaccine programme, particularly the booster delivery, the response of the public, but some of the sensible steps that have been taken. It is interesting that Douglas Ross is certain that the measures that he likes have been responsible for progress, but the measures that he does not like, he is equally certain that they have not played any part in the progress that is not, for the first time, a rather incredible position to take. I am also struck by the fact that some of the measures that the public are willingly following, and I thank them again for that, that Douglas Ross is now also rightly praising the public for face coverings, for example, working from home when possible, are all things that, in past weeks and months, Douglas Ross has stood here and absolutely opposed and said that the Scottish Government was wrong in asking people to do. We will continue to take balanced cautious steps to try to make sure that our progress out of this phase is one way and that we do not end up going backwards, despite the unpredictabilities that we know are associated with the virus. On the two specific points, I mentioned indoor events. I hope that we will see indoor events, which, for the avoidance of doubt, although I think that most people listening would probably know this, include indoor sporting events, will resume on 24 January. However, because of the uncertainties ahead, it makes sense to do this in a phased way. As we have done so many times in the past, when we face things, we lift measures on outdoor events before we do the same for indoor events. On vaccine certification, as we lift essential protective measures in some settings that we know are higher risk for transmission, despite the best efforts of those who run those settings, we are duty bound to consider whether there are any other measures that will mitigate and protect against those risks. That is where vaccine certification comes in. The vast majority of people accept that, if the price of getting to access pubs on a normal basis, or nightclubs on a normal basis, may be shown that they are vaccinated and that they are willing to pay. We have not taken a decision on extending the scope. We will consider that carefully and come to a balanced judgment. Finally, on Murrayfield, it is not too long ago that Douglas Ross was telling me that Murrayfield would never be able to do the spot checks that we were asking for then. They have been excellent in coping with that. I have every confidence that the SRU will be able to do that. In some other countries, of course, it is 100 per cent checks of vaccine certificates that are required. I have every confidence in the football authorities and in the rugby authorities to continue to operate responsibly and effectively. I start by sending my condolences to all those who have lost a loved one. There are reasons to be optimistic, but we are right not to be complacent. I welcome the easing of restrictions, particularly on outdoor sports events. Last week across this Parliament chamber, contributions from multiple members stressed the importance of providing up-to-date and comprehensive data, not just because it is right for this Parliament to do its job properly in scrutinising the Government, but because that information being in the public domain is vital to maintaining and building public trust and confidence. It helps people across Scotland to make decisions about what is right for them and their families. The First Minister has promised Parliament that the data will be available on Friday. Instead, we have got at best a partial dataset. That is not acceptable. The Government must have been basing decisions on that information. If not, why not? If yes, why not trust the public and share that information? A new phase of the pandemic must mean a new approach. One that recognises that we will be living with Covid in some form for years to come. That means building resilience back into the heart of our national health service but also into our economy and recognising the toll that the past two years have taken on the mental health of many Scots. People can no longer live their lives waiting to hear an ad hoc basis on what the rules will be day by day. Businesses and workers cannot plan for the future properly if they cannot predict the Government's response. I welcome that the First Minister now recognises the need for a proper framework. Can she confirm whether that will include clearly set out trigger points for any future restrictions? That could include rates of infection, hospitalisations and staff absences. Will it also include key triggers on what financial support will be available alongside that? Finally, can she commit that Parliament will vote on the framework and that any deviations from that framework will also come to Parliament for consent? The basic data is published every single day. When we can and need to augment that data, that is what has happened. I have set out today the way in which Public Health Scotland later this week will be augmenting that data to take account of the change to testing advice. On the data around hospitalisation, those in hospital, because of Covid versus those in hospital with Covid but for another primary reason, Public Health Scotland published on Friday the preliminary results of the analysis that they have been doing. I am not sure whether Anas Sarwar is somehow suggesting that Public Health Scotland is hiding some data that they have. That is not the case. They are doing careful, detailed work so that that information is robust. What was published on Friday is broadly in line so far with similar findings in England about the split between because of and with Covid. It is broadly in line with, although slightly different, to the same data that was published in August last year at an earlier stage of the virus. That data will continue to be updated as Public Health Scotland can robustly and confidently do that. However, as I said last week, any Government that was basing all its decisions right now on that particular data set alone would not be serving the country well. It is important information to have, but there is a real limit to the significance of it in terms of the impact of Covid. Somebody who is in hospital with Covid, even if Covid is not their primary reason for admission, still triggers a response that has a massive impact on the national health service and the fact that they have Covid will potentially exacerbate the other condition that they are in with. I would caution again over simplification of the significance of that data. Finally, I am happy to give a commitment that we will ask Parliament to consider and to vote on the draft revised framework. We will always come to Parliament appropriately with changes to our approach, but I repeat again just for the importance of understanding the fact that the virus does not wait until Parliament considers things. It spreads at its own pace, so sometimes Governments everywhere have to respond quickly in the interests of public health and public safety. We will consult on the contents of the framework in terms of triggers that it includes. Yes, we will look to give as much clarity and certainty as possible, but let me say this finally, Presiding Officer. It goes to the point about predictability. Of course, we want to give as much clarity and predictability as possible, but we are dealing with an infectious, unpredictable mutating virus. Any Government that gets itself stuck in fixed triggers or fixed ways of thinking about things is not serving the health and the safety of the country well, and we will not do that. I am very concerned that the use of vaccine certification is set to continue, not least because it does not show venues who are sick and who are well. I am also concerned about their wider role light to a new array of venues, particularly when many of those venues are pulling themselves off the map following the latest hospitality curves. I am also concerned that, with just five days' notice and big sporting events, they will nearly need to treble their checking capacity, leading potentially to bottlenecks and safety concerns that they have already raised with this Parliament. The First Minister talks about living with the virus. That is a concept that is all too familiar to 100,000 Scots who suffer long Covid. That number is surely going to rise with the surge that we currently face. I wonder whether the First Minister can tell us that more than 100 days have passed since the Government published its long Covid action plan, yet we are nowhere. Where are the long Covid clinics? Where are the care pathways? Where are the long Covid nurses? What is she going to do with those thousands of Scots who have been living with the virus, some of whom, since the start, are still waiting for support from her Government? On the points that have been raised, on vaccination or Covid certification, Alex Cole-Hamilton and I will have to agree to disagree. I think that vaccination certification has a role to play. Let me briefly illustrate it just by reference to any individual. If an individual is in a setting where the risk of transmission is higher and they get the virus there, if they are vaccinated, as I said in my statement, their risk of being hospitalised is significantly lower than it would be if they are not vaccinated. Making sure that somebody is vaccinated before they are in that setting has a significant benefit to individuals, but because it then reduces the chance of that individual being in hospital and adding to the pressure of the health service, it has a broader societal benefit. There is a place there, and I believe that it is an important place. Of course, we continue to consider it carefully. On the issue of checks, some sports clubs, as I understand it, have already gone beyond the minimum 20 per cent in guidance, but it is not too long ago that members were saying that the 20 per cent was unattainable and undeliverable and would lead to all sorts of chaos. That was not the case, and I have confidence in the bigger sports clubs that they will do that effectively because it is in the interests of sports clubs that we keep those settings as safe as possible. The long Covid action plan continues to be implemented. Again, it is wrong and an oversimplification to focus purely on one model of long Covid clinics. That has a role to play, but it is the overall pathways of care. It is the development of specialisms, the developing understanding of long Covid and its implications that is encapsulated in that wider plan and will continue to take that forward in partnership with clinicians and health boards across the country. Colin Michelle Thomson, to be followed by Murdo Fraser. Through the course of the pandemic, the First Minister has made difficult decisions in complex situations. Recently, we have heard reports that the UK Government is considering withdrawing free access to lateral flow testing with some senior UK ministers advocating even shorter self-isolation periods and even some influential Tory MPs calling for an end to all restrictions, regardless of infection rates, on 26 January. Even in the face of an endemic rather than a pandemic, does the First Minister agree that free lateral flow tests must remain a key part of any protection strategy? Can she reassure those watching that the gradual lifting of Scottish restrictions will continue to be balanced against wider public health needs? On the last part of that question, yes, it is important that we get this balance right. We all want to move back to the normality as quickly as possible. We know from past experience that, if we do that too quickly or in the wrong order, it can set us back rather than take us forward. Those judgments continue to be made as carefully as possible. On the issue of lateral flow testing, I think that living with Covid is likely to involve for some time the need to test ourselves in particular situations. Therefore, for that to be effective, I think that it is essential that we continue to make lateral flow tests available as widely as possible and free of charge. That is a really important principle to the effective working of any testing strategy. The UK Government has been at pains to say that it is not thinking of removing free access to lateral flow devices anytime soon. I hope that we see that assurance solidify and replace that with a clear commitment to continue with free lateral flow devices for as long as necessary. On the issue of self-isolation, after careful consideration, we moved from 10 days to 7 days. Having done that, I think that it would be a mistake to go further than that before we have had a chance to assess the impact of the change that has been made, but we will continue to keep all of those things under review and informed by the best clinical and expert advice possible. The First Minister talked about the protection that vaccination and being boosted provides against serious harm from Covid. Does she agree that publishing the figures for the numbers of those in hospital and in ICU as a result of Covid who are not vaccinated would help to reinforce that message to the public? Why is the Scottish Government still not announcing those numbers, despite repeated requests from those benches? Public Health Scotland is providing information on the relative risks of vaccination and non-vaccination. I am sure that Murdo Fraser has seen it in past Public Health Scotland reports. As I said in my statement, the up-to-date data shows that you are more than four times greater risk of being hospitalised if you are not fully vaccinated than you are if you are fully vaccinated. Public Health Scotland will continue to consider how best to present information, but there is no dubiety and no doubt whatsoever about the fact that if you are fully vaccinated, your risk of serious illness is significantly lower than is the case if you are not fully vaccinated. That is a message that all of us should be giving loudly and clearly. Staff absence in the NHS due to Covid is sitting at 3 per cent, but in social care it is 9 per cent and care packages have been withdrawn for several weeks now. Acknowledging the crisis in social care, can the First Minister comment on reports that the Scottish Government is considering paying family care as £15 an hour in the absence of care packages being put in place? Can she advise if this is a short-term measure? If family carers are to be valued in this way, why won't her Government value professional care staff by paying them £15 an hour? That is not a policy or a proposal from the Scottish Government. I hope that that deals with that point. We are increasing the wages of social care workers and I have taken steps to do that and want to continue to do that as resources allow us to do in order to properly value the contribution that social care workers make. The issue of staff absences is particularly acute in social care, which is why I spoke about the very significant work that the Scottish Government is doing with local authorities and other partners to make sure that we are maximising the resources that are going to support those who rely on social care and pointing out that even if, in the short term, that requires local authorities to take resources from other services to make sure that those most vulnerable who rely on social care get the services that they need, that is what they will do. We continue to work very carefully with local authorities to achieve that, but, as always, it is very easy to set out the problem, as Jackie Baillie, if I may say, so it always does very well. Finding the solutions to that, including the solutions that come from continuing to bear down on infection, is what we must focus on. As I agree with Jackie Baillie, that includes increasing the wages of social care workers, which this Government is already doing. The First Minister will be aware of calls from UK cabinet ministers for the self-isolation period to be cut to five days, seemingly without sufficient regard to the potential risks involved. Can the First Minister advise what consideration the Scottish Government has given to the issue and can she provide an assurance that any changes will be guided by expert clinical advice? As I said a moment ago in response to Michelle Thompson, we will consider the clinical advice on this issue and will keep this issue, as with all issues, under regular review. However, I have not just made the decision to move from 10 days to 7 days not an insignificant decision, as I said last week, not a decision that comes without risk. I think that the prudent and sensible thing to do is to monitor the impact of that before deciding whether or not to go any further. That is what we will do in the period ahead. I think that it would be a mistake to very quickly move from 7 days to 5 days. However, as I have already said, we will continue to discuss this with clinical advisers. It is reported that Scotland's national clinical director has said that closing nightclubs and cancelling football fixtures has made little difference to Scotland's coronavirus case numbers. As the First Minister says in her statement, the behaviour of response to the general public and the vaccination programme have helped to mitigate to some extent the impact of the Omicron wave. However, contrary to the statement, it seems that those restrictions may not have. When was the First Minister first aware of this data on closing nightclubs and cancelling football fixtures? Will the First Minister commit to providing all the data—not just the basic data, as was said in a previous answer—that the cabinet uses to inform its decision making ahead of announcements? Why keep it a secret? For clarity, I wish to point out in case of confusion that I am not against proportionate restrictions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. I am glad that the member has been clearer on that point this week than he managed to be last week. The national clinical director is possibly the most misquoted person in Scotland at the moment, and I suspect that that is the case in relation to the member's question. It is not the case that there is secret data that we take decisions on. The member is a doctor and understands more than most the difference between data, evidence and judgment. We publish all the data that is there and relevant. Data is case numbers, numbers of hospitalisations and the numbers that sadly die. That is the data that we publish. The evidence is where the risks are highest in terms of transmission, and we know that that is where ventilation is most difficult, where people come together, where often alcohol is involved. We take all that and apply our judgment to how best to stem transmission. That is what we do every week. That is what we will continue to do. It is difficult, and I wish that it was easier, to draw absolute causative links between measure A and outcome B. All of what we are seeing right now, not just in Scotland but in many other countries as well, is that it is a combination of vaccination, behavioural response and proportionate balance measures in higher-risk settings that are helping to blunt the edge of the Omicron wave. There is no magic wand to be waved here, but it is that combination that is helping us through, and it is that balance combination of measures that we will continue to seek to take. I have been contacted by constituents who have advised of their anxieties as they await for cases to go to court. As we know, court closures during the pandemic have led to significant backlog of cases. Will the First Minister provide an update as to the Scottish Government's work to enable backlogs across the criminal justice service to be cleared? This is an important area of work, and all the different justice agencies are focused on doing it. As Elinor Whitham and other members will recall, the recent budget announcement included significant funding increases for the justice portfolio, which will help to reduce the backlog and support community justice services in recovering from the pandemic. We have also established a justice recovery fund for the next financial year to further help with recovery renewal and some longer-term transformation activity across the justice system, which will include the ability to maintain enhanced court capacity and remote jury centres, which have been really important in dealing with the situation so far. Again, there are challenges facing the justice system, as is the case across all aspects of Government responsibilities, but investment has been made and action has been taken to get those services back to a normal operating basis as quickly as possible. The importance of complying with public health guidance to safeguard the most vulnerable in society and to protect our public services has been paramount for the past two years. In that time, so many of us have made sacrifices not seeing loved ones and not visiting those in crisis, but the level of solidarity that is shown by the public in following guidance and laws has been impressive. It is therefore absolutely sickening that, once again, it appears that the Prime Minister and his inner circle have ignored the rules and tried to cover it up. This is undermining public confidence in following health advice. The public feels betrayed and the Prime Minister must go. Does the First Minister agree and what can we do to retain public confidence in current measures? Before the First Minister responds very briefly to Ms Mackay's question, can I just emphasise to Ms Mackay that questions must focus on issues of devolved competence? The protection of public health is very much a devolved competence. It is the case that people across the country are aghast at the revelations about Downing Street's conduct. It appears that not just one isolated breach but serial breaches of guidance that people were following through painful sacrifices right throughout this pandemic and a Prime Minister who apparently is not being truthful about his knowledge of those matters. I do not think that it will surprise anybody to hear my view that the office of Prime Minister would be greatly enhanced by Boris Johnson's departure from it, but more importantly at this moment in time the interests of the United Kingdom would be enhanced by that as well. I call Pauline McNeill to be followed by Paul MacLennan. Excuse me, I am just going to rewind slightly and call Annabelle Ewing. It is clear indeed that from the start of the pandemic the extent of the buy-in to the Covid restrictions on the part of the people of Scotland, if not as we have heard number 10, Downing Street has in fact been quite remarkable. Can the First Minister therefore take the opportunity today to reiterate that the essential rationale for the remaining restrictions is indeed to protect the NHS as we navigate through another very challenging winter? I think that the groans coming from the Conservative benches when this issue is raised suggest that they are really out of touch with the feeling and the sentiment across the country. People over the last two years have been unable to see loved ones on their deathbeds, have been unable to go to funerals and comfort other loved ones during bereavement, have had long periods of absence from those nearest and nearest to them and to find that it appears that those making the rules in Downing Street on a serial basis where breaching those rules is deeply angering people and deeply upsetting people and that has to be understood and acknowledged. I understand that anger but what I would say to people across the country and this is very much my responsibility as First Minister with chief responsibility for trying to protect the public health of the country is notwithstanding anger at politicians wherever and whoever they are. Those rules, this guidance is there for a reason, it is there to try to keep you safe and to keep the country collectively safe and I would ask people to continue to do the right thing as the vast majority have been doing throughout and again take the opportunity to thank everybody for all of the sacrifices that have very painfully been made. Pauline McNeill, to be followed by Pauline McLeanon. Thank you. There are many examples of the impact of Covid restrictions on the events industry. For one agency, only seven Hogman issues went ahead out of 60 plans, so the loss of income due to Covid restrictions for many in the sector is catastrophic. I do however welcome the additional support that the First Minister had announced last week. Can the First Minister make sure that everyone in the event industry chain who needs support, and that would include agencies as well, will be eligible to apply for financial support? We are working very closely with the sector to do exactly that. I am not going to stand here and pretend that every single organisation, business agency that feels, doesn't just feel, that will have had a financial impact will get full compensation for that, but all of the packages of support that we have put in place are designed to try to ensure that help goes to those right throughout the supply chain of whatever sector we are talking about. That very much includes the event sector. That is the work that we are doing with the sector to try to make sure that that happens. Paul McLeanon, to be followed by Rachel Hamilton. The First Minister highlighted progress in regard to the revised strategic framework. Can I ask the First Minister what the consultation process will entail in regard to public health, education, business and local government bodies? We intend to, as I said in my statement, publish a revised framework as quickly as possible. I would hope that we will do that over the next few weeks, but we also want to consult as widely as possible. Principally, of course, we will consult with members and parties across the chamber, but we will also ensure that teams in the Scottish Government responsible for those areas will ensure that stakeholders in the economy, in education, across the wider public health community have the opportunity to feed in their views. Living with Covid has become a shorthand phrase. I am not sure that, when I say that, I mean the same things as, for example, Boris Johnson means when he says that, and different people will mean different things by that. That is not a pejorative statement, that is just a statement of fact, but it is important that we consider carefully what living with Covid means and the different trade-offs that might be involved with enabling us to do that. That means that we need to listen to views from across society and make sure that we take the best possible advice and expertise that we can, and that is what we will seek to do, albeit in a relatively short timescale. Don't run the risk of later regretting or of leaving your family to regret that you didn't get the protection against illness and death that vaccination gives you. First Minister, those are your words, not mine. Thousands of vulnerable and at-risk people are stuck in hospital or have been waiting weeks to be discharged and have missed getting a booster jab. How will your Government ensure that vulnerable people stuck in Scottish hospitals get the protection that you and I have received and they have missed? First Minister, I have made this point before, because this is an important issue, and it is important that we do not misunderstand the situation. Whether or not somebody who is in hospital gets the vaccination is down to clinical decision and judgment, there is no blanket prohibition on people in hospital being vaccinated. It is important to understand that. However, in relation to people who are in hospital when they could be discharged, our focus is on appropriate discharge as quickly as possible, because that is better for the individual, not just because they can be normally vaccinated but for all sorts of other reasons, but that is also in the interests of the wider national health service, because it alleviates some of the pressure that comes from delayed discharge. However, let me stress again that, whether somebody in hospital is vaccinated or not, is not the result of some blanket policy that is down to clinical decision making. A concerned constituent has been in touch as his mother is in a care home in Aire, where residents have been told that they need a self-isolate for 14 days when they are testing positive. With the self-isolation period being reduced from 10 days to 7 days, can the First Minister advise when the guidance for self-isolation in care homes will be updated? That is obviously an important issue. I think that everybody understands and agrees that protecting those in care homes who are often most vulnerable to Covid is an overriding priority. The measures that are currently in place enable loved ones to have meaningful contact with residents in care homes while balancing the risk that comes from Covid. The need to keep people safe in line with public health advice, especially given Omicron, is very much underpinning the decisions that we take. Given the changes to isolation that I set out last week, we had already commissioned public health experts to review the guidelines currently in place around self-isolation for care home residents and we expect to be able to update that position imminently. I undertake to ensure that the Parliament is notified of that as quickly as the work allows us to do. I heard the First Minister's answer to my colleague Jackie Baillie, but it is my understanding that areas, including Orkney, are already considering policy of paying family carers £15 an hour to discharge people from hospital, and that a Government minister has been quoted saying this in the press of the weekend. If this is happening, it appears to be a rushed policy that alone will not resolve the problem and unpaid carers have yet again not been involved. 90 per cent of unpaid carers have stepped up, providing 24 hours a day support for nothing. 10 per cent who actually do access carers allowance have been doing the same for the equivalent of 35 hours at £1.93 an hour. Unpaid carers are again rightly feeling bruised by a sudden realisation that they are key to the pandemic response faced with a continued lack of acknowledgement of the solutions that carers organisations have offered to the Government. What are its intentions around this policy? How will it determine who gets £15 an hour, who is left on £1.93 an hour and who gets nothing an hour? How can the Government ensure that they do not create a three-tier system of unpaid care where some people are paid at a rate that we believe is right for the job, as my colleague Jackie Baillie has set out, and others are left in poverty on £1.93 an hour or nothing at all? Let me be clear again that the Government has no plans to introduce a system to start paying family members £15 an hour or any amount an hour to look after elderly relatives. Individual partnerships may adopt different approaches as they see appropriate in their local circumstances, but it is not a Scottish Government policy or position. In terms of the Government's position, we do champion, of course, self-directed support to allow family members to employ people to provide care. That is an option that we encourage people to explore where appropriate.  We are actively considering how we can further support unpaid carers, who I think are shouldering a disproportionate share of the Covid burden at this time. Of course, as I said in my statement, we are working with local authorities to help to support the social care service more generally through a very difficult period. That includes not just in the immediate term, but in the longer term, increasing the pay rates within the social care sector. Omicron is a hugely adverse impact on foreign travel, resulting in thousands understandably cancelling holidays over Christmas and beyond, with travel agents spending more time at their own costs in terms of staff and utilities, handing back money to customers rather than booking holidays. Can the First Minister advise what support the Scottish Government will provide to hard-pressed independent travel agents, many of which are family-owned and will struggle for many months to come? That is a difficult time for travel agents, as it is for businesses in different sectors across the economy. We are trying as hard as we can to target funding to sectors that are most immediately and most severely impacted by the measures that we have in place. We have recently announced additional support for businesses, and we are working with different sectors, including in the travel sector, to get that money to affected businesses as quickly as possible. That work will continue for as long as there is a necessity to have measures like that in place. Minister, before the Covid pandemic, around 2,000 people were waiting for orthopedic treatment in NHS Island. The figure is close to 2,800 for the projected waiting time for new patients of years. First Minister, with the local national treatment centre not yet built, staff recruitment is looking increasingly difficult. What urgent actions can be taken during the pandemic to reduce these high waiting times? There is action currently being taken in the form of additional investment and efforts to maximise capacity to reduce waiting times as the NHS recovers. We set out, of course, in the NHS recovery plan the medium to longer-term commitments around increased capacity. That includes the commitment to national elective treatment centres. It also involves increased recruitment. Recruitment is a challenge right now in health, social care and across the economy. Of course, one of the significant reasons for that is the implications of Brexit and the ending of free movement, which is something that we need to make sure that we do not lose sight of. However, we will continue to support the national health service in a range of different ways to try to avoid unnecessary admissions, to reduce delayed discharge at the other end of the hospital system and to make sure that we get those waiting times back down as quickly as possible. Crucial to that, of course, is getting Covid under control so that we reduce that pressure on the NHS and enable it to focus fully on the recovery work. What reassurances can the First Minister provide to the pregnant women who may have reservations about getting vaccinated? I am happy to provide an assurance about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine for pregnant women, but perhaps for any woman who is pregnant rather than hear that from me, somebody who does not have clinical qualifications. I would point them to midwives of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal College of Midwifery. All of those expert voices are not just giving assurances about the safety of the vaccine for pregnant women but actively encouraging pregnant women to get vaccinated. Let me repeat that call. Please, if you are pregnant and are not yet vaccinated, take steps to do so. It provides you with protection and it provides your unborn baby with protection as well. Can the First Minister advise how the Scottish Government is financially supporting people on low incomes who are required to self-isolate? We are doing as much as we can to ensure that those who are on low incomes and are being required to self-isolate, which is a very difficult thing to be asked to do, to get the support that they need. We have put aside a further £100 million for the self-isolation support grant, for example. That means that those on low incomes who are asked by Tess and Protect to self-isolate can apply for the £500 grant. If they are eligible, that helps to ensure that they can self-isolate without financial hardship. We will continue to keep under review all the different ways that we can help people to do the right thing by self-isolating if that is what they are asked to do. That concludes the First Minister's Covid-19 update. My apologies to those members that I was unable to reach. There will be a brief pause before we move to the next item of business.