A national one minute's silence in remembrance of those who have lost their lives to coronavirus is to be held later this month.
Speaking on the one year anniversary of the first death due to the disease in Scotland, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said that people will be asked to pay their respects to the victims of Covid virus on 23rd March - the date which marks one year since the start of lockdown.
The current death toll from the virus by the Government's measure - which counts people who first tested positive for the disease in the past 28 days - is now 7,500.
However, National Records of Scotland, which tallies those whose death certificate mentions Covid, now puts the overall number at more than 9,000.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman
Ms Freeman said: "Around two weeks ago, we saw the anniversary of the first case of Covid 19 in Scotland.
"Today we recognise a harder anniversary, the first confirmed loss of life in Scotland to this virus.
"In every corner of our nation, this pandemic has brought grief and heartache over the last year."
She added: "We've been discussing with different organisations and communities how we can commemorate those who have lost their lives.
READ MORE: Join memorial garden campaign's day of remembrance for Scots covid victims
"As part of that, we intend to hold a national minuite's silence on the 23rd of March, the anniversary of lockdown, and we will set out further remembrance plans shortly.
"For now, I want to take this opportunity once again to send my deepest condolances to all who have lost a loved one to this dreadful illness."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel