Coronavirus claims lives of three more people in Scotland

Another three people have died with coronavirus in Scotland, the first deaths recorded for five days.

It takes the death toll among confirmed Covid-19 cases to 2485, but this rises to 4132 when presumed coronavirus deaths are included.

The country had gone four days in a row with no reported deaths of patients with the virus.

There have also been ten more cases of the virus confirmed in the past 24 hours.

It takes Scotland’s total cases over the course of the pandemic to 18,251.

Speaking at the Scottish Government’s Tuesday briefing, the First Minister said there had been a rise in the number of patients suspected to have the virus in hospitals.

A total of 885 people are being treated for Covid or Covid symptoms, a rise of 145 on the day before.

But Nicola Sturgeon stressed all of that rise relates to suspected cases, with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in hospitals actually dropping by three.

Similar, patients in intensive care rose by nine to stand at a total of 19, but all are suspected cases.

Since the pandemic began, a total of 4061 people previously hospitalised with Covid-19 have been able to go home.

The First Minister said despite the new deaths, weekly figures show a “sustained and significant ongoing reduction” in fatalities.

Nicola Sturgeon said in the previous seven days there had been a total of nine Covid deaths in Scotland, compared to 23 in the week prior to that.

Speaking 100 days after lockdown was imposed, the First Minister highlighted the progress that had been made.

When restrictions were first imposed on March 23, she said: “Covid was starting to run out of control in Scotland.

“Because of that two weeks after the start of lockdown in early April hospital admissions for the virus averaged over 200 every single day.

“Two weeks after that Covid deaths in Scotland, going by the wider National Records of Scotland data, were on average more than 90 every single day.

“To be in our current position with hospital admissions averaging just four a day, with consistently low numbers of new Covid cases, and with such a sharp reduction in death rates, all of that is massive and it is very welcome progress.”

Sturgeon added: “I believe we now have a genuine chance to come as close as it is possible to get to eliminating this virus in Scotland.”

That would help with measures to reopen the economy, and opening schools again in August – but the FM insisted it remains a “time of very real danger”.

She stressed the need to “work very hard” to ensure the progress made in recent weeks is not lost “or even worse, reversed”.

With lockdown restrictions being reimposed in Leicester, and the World Health Organisation warning the pandemic is “speeding up”, the First Minister said these should act as a “very loud reminder the virus hasn’t gone away”.

The First Minister warned Covid-19 is “just as infectious and just as dangerous as it ever was”, adding: “It will come back hard if we let it.”

She told Scots: “We are right now in a potentially very dangerous moment.

“We are reopening more public services and more businesses, we will soon start travelling a bit more and we will also start seeing more of our family and friends, including in outdoor pubs and restaurants.

“That is absolutely right, it is justified by the progress we have made and it is important to get our economy going again.

“But by opening up a bit more at a time when the daily statistics are looking so positive there is a real risk that people will let down their guard – it is a human reaction that all of us may be susceptible to.”

Sturgeon said the reduction in both cases and deaths from coronavirus were the result of “100 days of hard sacrifice” over lockdown.