Public will be asked to adopt new measures to tackle the covid-19 outbreak for ‘a significant number of weeks’, Nicola Sturgeon has said, as she promised support for social care as well as the health service.

Speaking during First Minister’s questions in parliament today, Nicola Sturgeon said that given the increasing number of positive tests for coronavirus, it would be “inappropriate to continue as normal”.

“A significant number of us are going to get this infection”, she said, before stating from the start of next week cancellation of any mass gatherings of 500 people would be advised.

Further measures, including the closure of schools and universities are not yet recommended but remain “under constant review”.

To deal with the spread of covid-19, the behaviour changes government would be asking people to make “will be for a significant number of weeks” with many designed “principally to protect resilience of our frontline workers”, the first minister said, as emergency services, NHS and social care staff are predicted to experience higher sickness rates.

Reflecting on the chancellor’s promise yesterday that the NHS “would get whatever it needed” to handle the coronavirus crisis as part of the UK budget announcements, Ms Sturgeon said Rishi Sunak’s comments were “helpful” but emphasised that her government had not yet been told what the level of funding would be.  

The Scottish government has already asked NHS boards to look at moving staff in non-essential roles to support out-of-hours GP services in the event of a severe escalation of coronavirus.

Concerns have been growing as to the impact on older and more vulnerable groups if predictions about staff absences prove correct.

Labour leader Richard Leonard asked what was being done to protect and support social care staff and those they look after. In light of the “complexity of the commissioning and contracting system”, he questioned how additional resources would get to workers on the frontline of the covid-19 pandemic.

Nicola Sturgeon said the focus of discussions had been about slowing the spread of the virus and reducing peak impact, as well as how to protect vulnerable people.

The Scottish government has promised advice for vulnerable and older people in the coming days and Ms Sturgeon said contingency plans were in place, ready to be implemented.

To ensure social care funding got to the appropriate places, Ms Sturgeon said she was considering “perhaps not using the usual methods of allocating”.

It comes as two significant representative organisations – Carers Scotland and the Carers Trust Scotland – have issued a joint statement, setting out current advice for unpaid carers and what they believe services, including the NHS and the UK and Scottish governments, should be doing to ensure unpaid carers are adequately accounted for in planning.

There are more people caring full time for relatives or friends than staff working either in the NHS or social care, the charities say, who have been left with unanswered questions about what an escalation in coronavirus cases means for them and those they care for.