Speaking today at the Scottish Government's daily coronavirus briefing, Nicola Sturgeon addressed four key points, including the latest update on Covid figures, the vaccination programme and improvements to the Protect Scotland app.
Here are the four key points outlined by Nicola Sturgeon at today's briefing.
Daily Covid-19 numbers
Scotland has recorded 48 deaths from coronavirus and 830 positive tests in the past 24 hours, Nicola Sturgeon said.
It brings the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 6,599.
Speaking during the Scottish Government’s daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon said 189,175 people have now tested positive in Scotland, up from 188,345 the previous day.
READ MORE: Scotland 'firmly on track' to vaccinate all over 70s by end of Sunday
The daily test positivity rate is 4%, down from 4.8% on the previous 24 hours.
Of the new cases, 243 are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 145 in Lanarkshire, and 116 in Ayrshire and Arran.
There are 1,499 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, down 43 in 24 hours, and 109 patients are in intensive care, down four.
Ms Sturgeon added that 1,048,747 people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, an increase of 63,178 on the previous day’s figures.
Scotland's R number
The First Minister said that the current R number in Scotland was below 1.0.
Ms Sturgeon said: “That is reflected in the decline in case numbers, in test positivity – the 4% test positivity we’ve reported today is the lowest in quite some time.
“The level of hospital admissions has now taken us below the number of admissions seen in the peak last spring.
READ MORE: Covid vaccine: Scotland rollout will be 'scaled back'
“All of that is really good news – the rays of sunshine I spoke about last week are undoubtedly a wee bit brighter this week. But it is important for me to continue to stress that the satiation – particularly in relation to the more infectious variant which accounts for about three-quarters of all new cases – that situation remains precarious and demands from all of us continued caution.”
She added that lockdown was working and having an impact on slowing the transmission of the virus.
The vaccination programme
Scotland had vaccinated more than one million people against Covid-19.
As of 8.30am on Thursday, 1,048,747 people have received their first dose of the vaccine.
That is an increase of 63,178 since yesterday, which is the highest daily total of vaccinations administered.
Ms Sturgeon said: “When you think about the truly dreadful weather most of the country is experiencing right now, which means that many of those administering and receiving the jag will have had to brave extreme elements, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to describe this as a heroic achievement.
READ MORE: Vaccine delay for working age Scots with underlying conditions
“The fact that more than one million people have now received the first dose of the vaccine is highly significant.
“It means we have now vaccinated more than 23% of the adult population and most of them are in the groups who are most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill and dying form Covid.
“It gives us real hope that even if the vaccine doesn’t have an immediate impact on transmission, we will see it start to reduce serious illness and death.”
Protect Scotland app
Updates have also been made to the Protect Scotland app.
From today, if the app alerts you to self-isolate, you can download a certificate on your phone to be used for proof for self-isolation support.
The second improvement allows the app to be used on older Apple phones.
Ms Sturgeon added: “The app has been downloaded 1.8 million times but we want to increase the reach further.
READ MORE: Number of vaccinations in Scotland hits new daily record as cases rise by 830
“If you have an older iPhone, please have another go at downloading now if you weren’t able to before.”
The First Minister urged members of the public not to become complacent in following lockdown restrictions.
She said: “If we are to keep the virus under control it is important that we do continue to follow these restrictions.”
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