NICOLA Sturgeon has insisted her government has not lost control of the virus in Scotland – as she claimed the lack of testing capacity being used is to prepare for a potential difficult winter period.

The First Minister admitted the virus was “spreading a little bit faster”, but the number of cases per 100,000 are the lowest in the four UK nations.

Speaking on Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday, Ms Sturgeon added: “That is because over the summer we suppressed the virus. That doesn’t mean we can be complacent about it, or not take it very seriously.

“It shows we were right to do that over the summer and I think we’re right now to act quickly and decisively to try and stop that increase in cases.”

Ms Sturgeon was asked why the virus was spreading at a fast rate in Scotland.

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She said: “We suppressed the virus to very low levels because of lockdown and lifted lockdown a little bit more slowly than other parts of the UK but as lockdown measures are lifted and people start to interact with each other more then the virus just gets more opportunities to spread.

“We’re also going into winter, we’re not into the depths of winter yet but temperatures are falling a little bit so the conditions for the virus start to come more favourable for it.”

The First Minister also put students returning to universities and schools before doing so in England as partially driving the rise in Scotland.

She added: “There’s a multitude of factors there but what is important is that we try and strike a balance between living as best we can with this virus, retaining some of the freedoms that we didn’t have during very strict lockdown, but still making sure we’re keeping it under control.”

Ms Sturgeon stressed that Scotland’s weekday testing capacity varies but confirmed it was between 30,000 and 40,000 on a weekday, adding Scotland was preparing the spare capacity for winter as they expect to see more people with symptoms - after being told by Sophy Ridge than less than half the capacity was being used.

The First Minsiter added that the Scottish Government was exploring "expanding testing into groups in the population who don't have symptoms", as well as asking people who have symptoms to get tested.

Asked about the restrictions in place in Scotland, which include closures of pubs and restaurants, and any confusion about the rules, Ms Sturgeon said: “I think most people know if they’re a restaurant or a cafe.

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“What we’ve tried to do here is put in place restrictions that can have the effect you want them to have which is reducing the spread of the virus.

“Now that means we have to reduce quite dramatically the volume of the things that people can come together and interact. We’ve tried to do that but also build in a bit of flexibility.”

The First Minister explained cafes, which sell light meals and typically do not serve alcohol, were kept open for social isolation reasons.

She added: “We can be a lot more simple but that usually means a lot harder, we’re trying to strike the right balance here between controlling the spread of the virus but allowing as much normality as possible.

“Leaders like me everywhere right now, it feels like we’re holding lives in one hand and jobs in the other and we’re trying to strike a very, very difficult balance and do that as best we possibly can.”