Regional breakdown: 5.6% of Covid cases in north and north-east are Omicron

Nearly 6,000 people across Scotland have Covid, the daily figures show.

Positive cases in Scotland totalled 5,951, of which 663 are the Omicron variant – up by 102 from yesterday.

Earlier today, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Omicron was expected to be the dominant variant by tomorrow as she revealed it was already making up 45% of positive cases tested.

She reiterated her pleas for people to stay at home, reduce social interaction and said there was “no time to waste” in getting a booster.

In Grampian, there are currently 12 Omicron cases while in the Highlands there are 29.

Overall, there are 462 Covid cases in Grampian and 238 in the Highlands.

The Western Isles and Orkney both recorded 16 new cases, while Shetland had 11.

A further 18 people have died from Covid, including two in Aberdeenshire.

Hospitalisations and vaccinations

In Scotland, the number of people in hospitals has dropped from 544 to 531 in the last 24 hours.

In Grampian, 63 people were in hospitals down three from yesterday, while in Highland the figure has remained at 22.

People in intensive care in Scotland also dropped by four to 34.

In terms of vaccinations, Scotland broke its previous highest daily total of jabs administered on Wednesday with 54,104 jabs given out

Today Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said he was ” confident” that the booster roll-out can be accelerated to reach the government’s target of 61,000 by the end of the year.

In total 4,366,439 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, while 3,983,975 have received their second dose.

Booster or third doses have been administered to 2,313,843 people.