Covid cases in Scotland have hit their highest since the pandemic began.
The Scottish Government’s daily figures revealed a total of 5,021 cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours.
Since restrictions relaxed on August 9, cases have steadily increased – with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warning yesterday that she could not rule out having to reimpose some.
The first minister and chief medical officer Gregor Smith described it as a “challenging and fragile period” although acknowledged cases were always likely to rise as restrictions eased.
“That said, the scale of the increase is still a cause of real concern,” Ms Sturgeon said.
Regional breakdown
The majority of new cases is mainly concentrated in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lothian and NHS Lanarkshire.
NHS Grampian is now the fourth highest reporting board after recording 299 new cases in the last 24 hours.
Aberdeenshire accounts for 158 new cases and Aberdeen City reported 111 cases.
Moray recorded 30 new cases of Covid in the past 24 hours.
NHS Highland remains the fifth highest reporting board with 286 new cases of the virus being reported.
The region recorded almost 10% of its total case count for the entire pandemic in a single week.
NHS Highland has said more than 1,000 cases had been recorded between August 16 and 22, and added that the increase was “expected to continue”.
The Western Isles has recorded seven new cases of the virus, meanwhile, both Shetland and Orkney only recorded one new case each.
Vaccine roll-out
As for the Scottish Government’s vaccine roll-out, 4,088,894 people have received their first dose and 3,603,429 have received their second dose.
During the briefing Ms Sturgeon praised the “genuinely remarkable uptake figures” for the vaccination, and said 80% of over 18s had received both doses, including 95% of over 40s.
However she said: “There are still eligible people out there who are not yet vaccinated and that does pose a risk.”
“Please do get vaccinated now,” she asked all over 16s.
Ms Sturgeon also pointed out that vaccination “doesn’t provide anyone of any age with 100% protection” – saying that one third of new cases had been in those double-jabbed.