CLACKMANNANSHIRE has overtaken Glasgow and East Renfrewshire to become Scotland's latest virus hotspot after a "concerning" rise in cases.
Latest figures from Public Health Scotland show that over a seven-day period, the area stands at 139.7 cases per 100.000.
During a similar period, Glasgow - which remains the only council area in Level 3 restrictions - recorded 136.8 cases per 100,000.
The average figure across Scotland is 43.9.
Humza Yousaf, the newly appointed Health Secretary, admitted the rise in cases in Clackmannanshire is causing "concern".
However, he said this could be due to the relatively low population in the council area.
“Clackmannanshire has a really small population, so even four, five, six households testing positive can really make the numbers look like they’re shooting up,” he said.
“But it is a concerning situation, I’m not going to lie to you about that – it’s one of the local authorities we’re looking at and speaking to local health directors, can it be contained and can it be managed?
“But Clackmannanshire is one of the local authorities that’s giving us a little bit of concern.”
Earlier, Mr Yousaf said this week would be "critical" for Glasgow ahead of another review of restrictions on Friday.
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He said: “There’s a range of data we look at.
“We obviously want to see those cases per 100,000 falling, we obviously want to see the test positivity falling, we want to look at hospital admissions and also ICU admissions – I think that’s quite critical and quite key.
“But also what I want to hear from local public health directors is can they contain it? Can it be managed?
“The last thing we want to do is if we’re not quite sure, move Glasgow down a level only for in the weeks and months to come then we have to increase the level again and put them back into Level 3.
“That yo-yoing effect isn’t going to help anybody at all.
“I don’t want to keep anybody in any level or any restriction for a minute longer than we have to but this week is going to be quite critical when we look at the data.”
Mr Yousaf said he was “reticent” to say ahead of time what the data would need to show for Glasgow to move into Level 2.
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