Another 22 deaths as 591 new coronavirus cases reported

A further 22 people have died from coronavirus and 591 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs at the Scottish Parliament that the number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the disease has now risen to 7483.

Approximately another 2000 people have Covid-19 listed as a possible cause on their death certificate.

The total number of positive cases in Scotland now stands at 207,747.

There are currently 556 patients in hospital who have tested positive for coronavirus, with 42 of those in intensive care.

The daily test positivity rate now stands at 2.5%, Sturgeon added.

A total of 1,825,800 Scots have now received their first dose of the vaccine, an increase of 16,642 on the previous day’s total.

In addition, 141,433 people have received their second dose of the vaccine, an increase of 8673.

Marking the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring Covid-19 a pandemic, Nicola Sturgeon said there was grounds for optimism.

Sturgeon said: “The last 12 months have been incredibly tough – unimaginably tough for everybody.

“But as I indicated on Tuesday, we do now have real grounds for optimism, albeit cautious optimism.

“Case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths have all fallen in recent weeks and when we publish the latest estimate of the R number later today we expect it to show that it remains below one.

“And, of course, the vaccination programme has given a first dose to 40% of the entire adult population and it is set to significantly accelerate over the next few weeks.”

Sturgeon added that progress in the fight against Covid-19 has meant the next phase of opening schools and changes to outdoor mixing will go ahead.

All primary school pupils and more secondary pupils will be back in school from Monday, while changes to current rules will allow four people from two households to mix outdoors from Friday.

Sturgeon said: “Because of that continued progress, I can confirm we will go ahead as planned with the next stage of the reopening of schools on Monday.

“In addition, changes to the rules on outdoor meetings and activities which I set out on Tuesday will come into force tomorrow.”

The First Minister will also lay out the changes to the levels system which is due to come into force from the end of April.