SCOTLAND currently has the highest rate of Covid infections in the UK, with more than 100 cases being detected per million people.
The figures, based on a seven-day average per million people, show that Scotland first overtook Northern Ireland around March 10 and has remained ahead since then.
As of Saturday, Scotland was recording a rate of 102.7 Covid cases per million people compared to 80 in Northern Ireland, 79.1 in England, and 66.4 in Wales.
The figure is also up by nearly 14 per cent, from 90.3 on March 9, at a time when the infection rates in other parts of the UK have been falling or stable.
The data is set out on the acclaimed Travelling Tabby coronavirus tracker website, based on statistics from the Scottish Government, Office for National Statistics, and Public Health Scotland.
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Some - but not all - of the difference could be explained by higher Covid testing rates in Scotland, compared to other parts of the UK.
Over the past seven days, Scotland has been averaging 3,648 tests per million population, which is roughly 5% more than Wales or Northern Ireland. Figures on the seven-day testing rate per million are not available for England.
However, it also comes after concerns were raised during recent Covid briefings over a rise in incidence of the disease among young people, who are less likely to have been vaccinated and therefore more able to spread the coronavirus.
Data shows sharp increases in infections especially among people aged 20-24 and 25-44.
Speaking on Monday, Scotland's chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith, said: "The most common age group for cases right now is between and ages of 25 and 44 - that working age population."
The CMO confirmed that a "small number" of cases had been traced to people who took part in the Rangers title celebrations in Glasgow, either at George Square or attending house parties linked to the Premiership win, although it is impossible to pinpoint exactly where any individual becomes infected - only where they have been.
Nicola Sturgeon, also speaking on Monday, said she could not rule out the possibility that the rise in cases was linked to the return of schooling.
She said: “It is important to note that over the past seven days we have actually seen a slight increase in cases and we will be monitoring that carefully and it does provide us with a reminder that there is still no room for complacency and that our room for manoeuvre is limited.”
However, there were some signs in Sunday's figures that this increase could be beginning to level off.
The total number of infections across all age groups in Scotland totalled 3,977 in the seven days to Sunday March 21.
This is down slightly from 4,054 in the seven days to March 14.
The test positivity rate is also down slightly week-on-week, from an average of 3.3% in the week to Sunday 14th to 3.1% in the past seven days.
Increasing infections among the young could be offset by high vaccination rates in older age groups, protecting them from becoming ill and possibly from contracting the virus at all.
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Death rates from the virus also remain lower in Scotland than in other parts of the UK.
As of Saturday, Scotland was reporting a seven-day average of 1.15 deaths per million people compared to 1.81 in Wales and 1.44 in England.
Only Northern Ireland was lower, with 0.45 deaths per million people per day, over the past week.
It comes as Scotland prepares to hold a minute's silence on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the UK-wide lockdown and remember those who have lost their lives to Covid.
Since the start of the outbreak there have been 7,552 deaths in Scotland in people who tested positive for the virus.
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