Almost 200 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Scotland in just 24 hours.

The Scottish Government announced on Saturday seven more people had died after contracting the virus, with 186 more positive cases.

The total number of deaths in the country is now 40, and 1,245 have tested positive.

READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland: How the daily death tally hit a new high

Greater Glasgow and Clyde remains to be the area with the most cases, recording 376 - an increase of 77 in one day.

Lanarkshire has the second highest number, recording 165.

The chief medical officer said that only about 1,000 people had been confirmed with coronavirus but she thought the real figure might be 65,000.

"While it is dangerous to go day by day, I want to really emphasise that I would now be estimating that there are more than 65,000 people in Scotland infected," said  Catherine Calderwood.

"The vast majority of those people maybe do not realise they have coronavirus or perhaps have symptoms and thank you to them for self-isolating."

Meanwhile, coronavirus-related deaths in the UK jumped from 759 to 1,019 in an increase of 260 – by far the biggest day-on-day rise in the number of deaths since the outbreak began.

It means the total number of deaths is 34% higher than the equivalent figure yesterday. This is the largest day-on-day percentage increase since March 18, when the total rose from 71 to 104 (a 46% jump).

It took 13 days for the number of deaths in the UK to go from one to just over 100. It has taken a further 10 days for the total to go from just over 100 to just over 1,000.