Coronavirus is down but not out in Scotland, according to Nicola Sturgeon who confirmed there had been no new deaths recorded in Scotland for the fourth day running.
A total of 259 positive coronavirus tests have been recorded in the past 24 hours, giving a daily test positivity rate of 2%.
No additional deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours, she added, meaning the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is 7,614.
Speaking live in an address to the nation, the First Minister said 220,493 people have now tested positive in Scotland.
READ MORE: Evening bus service cancelled amid rise in dangerous antisocial behaviour
Of the new cases, 93 are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 44 in Lothian and 32 in Lanarkshire.
📺 Watch live: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gives an update on plans to return to full-time education after the Easter holidays.
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) April 6, 2021
Joining the First Minister is Chief Nursing Officer Amanda Croft and National Clinical Director Jason Leitch. https://t.co/4LBVe5UtRv
The remaining cases are spread over six other health board areas.
Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that 196 people are in hospital - 19 fewer than before the Easter holidays, and 21 people are in intensive care - the same figure as last reported.
In the past 24 hours, Ms Sturgeon reported no additional deaths, but said it was important to remember yesterday was a bank holiday, meaning registry offices were closed.
The total number of deaths under the Scottish Government's daily measure is unchanged at 7,614.
However, The First Minister warned Scots that there is still a risk of Covid-19 spikes as are being seen in other countries, despite relatively low numbers north of the border.
She told the coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh: “In total, cases have now fallen by 80% since early January when of course they were at a particularly high level, the number of deaths has fallen even more sharply than that and as you can see from the numbers I reported earlier the number of people in hospital and intensive care is reducing.”
But she added: “Covid is down in Scotland, you can see that from the figures, but as we can still see here and more starkly in more parts of the world, Covid is not out.
“It is a virus that is very much still with us.
“Here in Scotland we are still seeing hundreds of people every day testing positive for it and almost all of the new cases that we are seeing reported now in Scotland are of the new variant that emerged just before Christmas and as we know that variant is more infectious than the variants we were dealing with earlier this year.”
READ MORE: Reports of serious blood clots: Should I be concerned about the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine?
Acknowledging Scotland's vaccination programme, Ms Sturgeon confirmed that as of 7.30am this morning, 2,577,816 people had received their first dose - up 12,536 since yesterday.
In addition, 7,406 people received second dose bringing total number of second doses administered to 463,780.
She added that the first batch of newly approved Moderna vaccines arrived in Scotland on Monday.
Scotland is due to receive more than one million of the 17 million doses ordered by the UK.
The First Minister also said that the doses have already been factored into forward planning for the vaccination programme, and will be delivered over the coming months.
Addressing the coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh, she said: “The fact that we now have three vaccines in use is clearly very welcome and it does give us greater security of supply which is welcome.”
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