Scientists in Glasgow have found coronavirus was brought into Scotland more than 100 times in February, then spread in multiple clusters in a matter of days.

They suggested a lockdown earlier and quarantine of people traveling from countries with high numbers of cases could have prevented a rapid spread.

The virus was brought in through travel from Italy, Spain and Austria and then spread quickly throughout the population.

There were no links to China or other south east Asian countries detected in the first positive cases, the study found.

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It has been discovered by the researchers at Glasgow University that Covid 19 was brought to Scotland before March 1.

The researchers found the virus was introduced at least 113 times during the first four weeks of the outbreak in Scotland.

The team studying patterns of infection said the introductions were before travel restrictions were in place in Scotland and also other countries.

The authors of the study have concluded that several early introductions of the virus were undetected and quickly established community transmission in Scotland.

They said there was a dramatic shift from cases associated with travel into Scotland to transmission within the community from March 11, ten days after the first detected case.

Emma Thomson, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, said: “Our study confirms SARS-CoV-2 entered the Scottish population through at least 113 separate travel-related introductions, leading to multiple clusters of sustained community transmission.

"We identified viral lineages with no link to travel as early as three days after the first detection of infection, indicating earlier introduction to Scotland and community spread before the first detected case.”

She added: “The speed at which the virus took hold in Scotland and the UK as a whole following multiple introductions, mainly from other European countries, was extremely rapid.

“It is possible an earlier lockdown from countries with a high burden of cases, such as Italy, and other measures such as quarantine of travellers from high-risk areas, might have prevented escalation of the outbreak and multiple clusters of ongoing community transmission.”