Nearly 6000 Covid cases recorded overnight as Omicron 'tsunami' begins

Scotland has recorded one new coronavirus death and 5924 positive cases in the past 24 hours as the Omicron “tsunami” begins to sweep the country.

It brings 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 – to 9781.

Registry offices are generally closed at weekends, affecting the numbers of deaths recorded.

The test positivity rate stood at 13.9% in Sunday’s figures, up from 12.2% on Saturday.

There were 504 people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19, of which 38 were in intensive care.

A total of 4,371,171 people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccines, while 3,991,879 have received their second dose and 2,501,033 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 transmissible than Delta.”