AG百家乐在线官网

The COVID inquiry has ended for today and Nicola Sturgeon's questioning is over. 

Here's a summary of the main things we heard today - scroll down for more detail, including pictures of documentary evidence shown to the inquiry

Ms Sturgeon became tearful as she told the inquiry there was a "large part" of her that wishes she had not been Scotland's first minister during the pandemic.

She again became emotional as she denied suggestions that the Scottish government used COVID for political purposes.

Explaining how she handled the virus, she said her "chief" regret was not locking down sooner.  

"I was motivated solely by trying to do the best we could to keep people as safe as possible," she added.

"I carry the regret for the loss of life, the loss of opportunity, the loss of education of our young people, I carry that with me every single day."

Her evidence was not well received by members of the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, who said the former first minister was crying "crocodile tears". 

Nicola Sturgeon is asked about COVID testing in care homes. 

People released from hospital to care homes were not required to test for the virus if they did not have any symptoms in the early weeks of the pandemic. 

Kevin McCaffery, a representative of the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, says this was despite evidence showing asymptomatic transmission was possible. 

The inquiry was shown this part of Ms Sturgeon's written statement on asymptomatic infection...

She says there was uncertainty over the extent to which asymptomatic transmission was a risk, and the reliability of testing people who did not have symptoms. 

"That is why early advice on care homes focused very much on isolation and keeping people separate," she adds.

"There are other issues that I think we need to probe very, very seriously." 

She adds: "I do not think we got everything right around care homes and I deeply regret that." 

In the early months of the pandemic, more than 100 people were discharged from hospital to care homes after having previously tested positive for the virus and before returning a negative test.

Jamie Dawson KC asks his final question, which is based on the experience of a member of the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, whose wife died.

"Hubris does not stop a pandemic. The story of COVID in Scotland is the story of the hubris of Nicola Sturgeon, is it not?" 

Nicola Sturgeon replies: "No. I don't believe that to be the case." 

She says she was fortunate enough not to lose anyone during the pandemic, and she wishes with "every fibre of her being" that her decisions could have reduced the number of deaths. 

"I am deeply sorry to each and every bereaved person and each and every person who suffered in other ways," she says. 

"I did my best, my government did our best and people will judge that. I know every day I tried my best and those working with me tried our best to steer this country through the COVID pandemic the best way we could."

As questioning by Jamie Dawson KC draws to a close, Nicola Sturgeon is again asked about her motives throughout the pandemic.

She insists, as she has throughout the day, that her only drive was to minimise deaths in Scotland.

"We didn't do as well as I wish we were able to," she says.

"Every death is a tragedy I regret."

She says deaths in Scotland were too high, but were significantly lower than in other parts of the UK.

"That was my duty," she says.

Asked whether in her quest to "drive COVID out of Scotland" she wasn't prepared for the second wave of the coronavirus, Nicola Sturgeon disagrees.

 "I don't accept I was off the ball."

She says the second wave began when the Alpha variant hit, and by then testing capacity had expanded and the vaccine rollout had begun.

"An assessment of outcomes overall suggests our approach was far from perfect but managed to mitigate some harm that wasn't mitigated in other places," she says.

Throughout her questioning, Nicola Sturgeon has reiterated her aim to "minimise the harm" COVID could cause in Scotland, and she has driven home that point again. 

Holding back tears, the former first minister says she takes it "very, very personally" when her motives are questioned. 

"I know the motives were absolutely in good faith and for the best reasons," she says. 

Jamie Dawson KC says she wanted to be the person that drove COVID out, which she refutes. 

"I desperately wanted to minimise the harm of COVID in Scotland, but I was not under any illusions," she adds. 

"I just wanted to understand as much as I could."

Mr Dawson says she was speaking to Professor Devi Sridhar about COVID in a bid to have an expert to agree with her approach. 

Mr Sturgeon doesn't accept this idea, and says she wanted to make sure she wasn't missing any information or ignoring any perspectives. 

On 23 July 2020, Boris Johnson visited Scotland and Nicola Sturgeon tweeted this about his trip...

Asked about the tweet by the inquiry, Ms Sturgeon says Mr Johnson had billed the visit as a "mission to save the union" and, upon reflection, she shouldn't have taken the bait. 

"I would never even have been in that space at all but for the pretext of the prime minister's visit," she says. 

"Perhaps I should have been the bigger person and not reacted in that way with that tweet." 

She says the UK government didn't "try to politicise the pandemic" other than saying Brexit made the vaccine rollout possible. 

After a short break, the inquiry returns and questioning begins over border controls in Scotland. 

Nicola Sturgeon is asked about the differences between England and Scotland when it came to travel corridors. 

A document is shown to the inquiry of an email exchange between the deputy first minister and a number of people, including Ms Sturgeon. 

In an email on 19 July, John Swinney says he is "extremely concerned" about Spain being removed from a list of countries people could travel to the UK from. 

In the message he says: "It won't matter how much ministers might justify it on health grounds, the Spanish government will conclude it is entirely political; they won't forget; there is a real possibility they will never approve EU membership for an independent Scotland as a result." 

Ms Sturgeon is asked whether the decision to lift quarantine restrictions on Spain a day later, on 20 July, was made out of concerns about EU membership. 

She insists it was made because of health data at the time and based on "public health grounds" and not with EU membership in mind. 

Quarantine requirements for people coming from Spain were reinstated just six days later on 26 July. 

Our Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies is speaking outside the inquiry as it takes a short break.

He says COVID campaigners have accused Nicola Sturgeon of "crocodile tears" after she became emotional when asked if she was a good first minister during the pandemic. 

The families do not think she has answered the questions accurately or "to the best of her ability", he says. 

"They say it was a cynical, premeditated decision to delete the WhatsApps en masse," he says.

He says the bereaved families have not ruled out a criminal complaint for the deletion of the WhatsApps, and it remains to be seen if Ms Sturgeon manages to "clear the air" during the rest of the inquiry. 

Jamie Dawson KC shows the inquiry a cabinet document showing work to restart a campaign for Scottish independence was being discussed, despite Nicola Sturgeon publicly criticising people for politicising the pandemic. 

He suggests that was hypocritical of her.

She responds by saying his summary was not a "fair reading" of the situation and she remembers the meeting being about Brexit. 

"We agreed consideration should be given to restarting work," she says, insisting "work did not restart". 

"There was no prospect of starting work on independence at that time, but in any event it didn't happen," she adds.