Nearly 6000 Covid cases recorded in 24 hours as Omicron fears rise

Scotland has recorded nine new coronavirus deaths and 5917 positive cases in the past 24 hours as Omicron fears rise.

The daily figures from the Scottish Government show 494 people are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19, of which 34 are in intensive care.

The Covid-19 death toll in Scotland under the daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – now stands at 9780.

The test positivity rate stands at 12.2%.

A total of 4,369,398 people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine while 3,988,961 have received their second dose and 2,436,952 have received a third dose or booster.

On Friday, the First Minister announced that Omicron is now the dominant strain of coronavirus in Scotland.

She told a briefing that 51.4% of cases in the country were likely to be the new variant.

However, she warned that due to the volume of tests being processed, the number of cases could be higher.

Sturgeon said: “Omicron now has replaced Delta as the dominant Covid strain circulating in Scotland and that presents a challenge because we know Omicron is significantly more transmissable than Delta.”