Covid in Scotland: Number of new cases highest since February

Scotland has recorded its highest number of new Covid cases since February, a day before restrictions ease across much of the country.

A total of 992 people tested positive for the virus on Thursday, the highest daily figure since 17 February.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the number of new cases had more than tripled in the past month.

And she said it showed that the country was at a "critical juncture" in the pandemic.

But she stressed that the success of the vaccine programme meant that the country could continue to look forward to living with fewer restrictions over the summer.

And she said the link between the number of cases and the number of people being hospitalised and dying because of the virus was not as strong as it was in the past.

Many areas in the north and south of mainland Scotland will move from level two to level one from midnight on Friday.

Glasgow will move from level three to level two and island communities including Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles will move to the lowest level zero restrictions.

But it was announced earlier this week that 13 council areas with a combined population of 2.3 million people in the central belt of the country, including Edinburgh, would stay in level two rather than moving down to level one as had been planned.

And the country's national clinical director has warned that Scotland is now in the early stages of a third wave of the virus, with more than half of new cases being the so-called Delta variant that was first detected in India.

Ms Sturgeon said that this variant appeared to be "quite significantly" more transmissible than the Kent variant that was dominant earlier this year, and that there was early data that suggests it may increase the risk of hospitalisation.

She stressed that there were "strong indications" that vaccines were weakening the link between rising cases and the number of people being hospitalised, needing intensive care treatment and dying.

She warned that the link had not yet been broken completely, with hospital cases rising to more than 100 in the past week and a small "upward tick" in the number of patients in intensive care in recent days.

And she said the figures justified her decision to pause the easing of restrictions in many areas of the country where case numbers are increasing.