More than 10,000 new Covid cases have been reported in Scotland while hospital admissions continue to rise.
The latest data shows there are 10,100 newly reported cases across the country, including 1,065 reinfections.
In the past 24 hours, the number of hospital patients being treated for the virus has risen to 2,326 – four more than yesterday.
The number of people with Covid in intensive care has risen by two to 28.
This marks the fifth day in a row that Scotland has reported a new record number of Covid hospital patients.
Hospital admissions have been gradually increasing throughout March, surpassing 2,000 on March 17 for the first time since January 2021.
NHS Grampian is currently treating 180 patients for the virus, which is six more than the day before.
Meanwhile, NHS Highland is treating 147 people, an increase of three, and NHS Western Isles has five Covid patients in hospital.
A further 41 Covid-related deaths have also been confirmed, with two in the Grampian region.
This brings the total number of deaths over the past seven days to 164.
Regional breakdown
Of the 10,100 newly reported cases, 4,094 were identified using a PCR and 5,717 were confirmed with just a lateral flow test.
A total of 964 new cases were reported by NHS Grampian. There are 434 in Aberdeenshire, 350 in Aberdeen City and 180 in Moray.
NHS Highland has confirmed a further 690 cases, including 160 in Argyll and Bute.
NHS Western Isles remains the health board with the highest seven day case rate in the country, recording a rise since yesterday.
Its latest seven day case rate is 3,132.1 per 100,000 of the population.
There are 58 in Shetland and 27 in Orkney, with the latter currently recording the lowest seven day case rate in Scotland – 812.5 per 100,000.
Vaccine roll-out
More than 5,000 people have received a dose of the Covid vaccine in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data.
A further 2,649 fourth doses have been rolled out, bringing the total to 59,206.
More than a quarter of care home residents in Scotland have now received a second booster.
Meanwhile, the total number of first boosters and third doses has risen to 3,446,630 – 72.1% of over 12s.
A total of 4,341,965 people have now had a first dose of the Covid vaccine, while 4,089,894 people have also received a second dose.
