Nicola Sturgeon coronavirus briefing: No lunchtime update from First Minister, here’s how the latest daily figures for Scotland will be announced instead

Instead, the daily figures for Scotland will be shared on the Scottish Government’s website around 2pm – and you can get all the latest updates via our dedicated LIVE BLOG.

On Tuesday, Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland had recorded 2,529 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, while the daily test positivity rate fell 0.2% in the same period to 14.8%.

Around half of the new cases are thought to be the new variant, a proportion which Ms Sturgeon said is “rising”.

The number of hospital patients confirmed to have coronavirus has also risen steeply to 1,347, up 255 in a week.

Of these patients, 93 are in intensive care, an increase of 28 in the same period.

Ms Sturgeon spoke as mainland Scotland entered a second national lockdown.

“The current situation we face now in the pandemic is in my view more serious than it has been at any time since the spring,” the First Minister said.

“That is because this new, more transmissible variant of Covid is becoming increasingly common, and as a result of that cases are rising much more steeply and rapidly than they had been in the latter part of last year.”

With two vaccines now approved for use in the fight against the virus, the Scottish Government will do everything it can to ensure people get these “as quickly as possible” Ms Sturgeon added.

But she added “because this new variant is spreading so much more quickly” it was important also to act to try to slow down the spread of coronavirus.

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