PEOPLE in East Renfrewshire who are most at risk from coronavirus are to be given "bespoke" guidance from Scotland's chief medical officer to help protect themselves from infection.

Guidance on self-isolating will be issued by Dr Catherine Calderwood, with tailored advice about avoiding infection and how to deal with loneliness.

People identified as being most vulnerable from the Covid-19 illness include many cancer patients, organ transplant recipients, patients having immunosuppression treatment and those with respiratory conditions such as severe asthma or cystic fibrosis.

Other categories of risk, as agreed by the UK's chief medical officers, are pregnant women with congenital heart disease and those with diseases that significantly increase the risk of infections.

The support will be made available through GPs and local resilience partnerships and will include help with medical conditions, as well as access to medicine, health services, food and supplies.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: "Responding to the coronavirus pandemic is the biggest challenge of our lifetimes and we must do all we can to slow it down and save lives.

"That's why we are asking people at the highest clinical risk to self-isolate for a long period – and our local services must prioritise them.

"This will help protect them, minimise the loss of life from Covid-19 and reduce the burden on the NHS in responding to patients who are likely to become severely unwell."