THE Scottish Government has warned it “will not hesitate” to reimpose tough coronavirus restrictions if cases rise again.

Giving an update of the state of the pandemic in the Scottish Parliament, Humza Yousaf told MSPs that there were “early signs” the virus could increase.

It comes amid fears the COP26 summit in Glasgow could result in a spike in cases.

The SNP Health Secretary said: “The decline in new cases has halted in recent weeks – and, at around 2,500 new cases per day, it is still at a level well above previous lows.

“There are early signs that case numbers may increase again hereafter and so the situation remains precarious.”

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As the Scottish Sun reports, while saying the government was looking at “all options” for tackling the “evolving pandemic”, he added: “We will not hesitate to strengthen the protective measures in place if it proves necessary to do so.”

Thousands of delegates and up to 100,000 environmental protesters are taking to Glasgow in the coming days – sparking fears of a virus surge similar to that after the Euro 2020 matches or the G7 Summit in Cornwall.

Mr Yousaf urged marchers to “think very carefully about their behaviours and their impact on services – as well as the risk of spreading the virus to others”.

He also explained that the Scottish Government “do not consider that any countries meet the very high risk threshold” to be on the “red list” requiring international arrivals to quarantine in hotels.

He continued: “The situation will be closely monitored and, of course, regularly reviewed.

“If the situation demands it, we will not hesitate to reimpose restrictions on international travel to safeguard the health of our citizens and protect Scotland’s recovery.

“Some managed quarantine capacity will stay in place in Scotland in order to react to any change in risk assessment that would see a country added to the red list.”

It comes as figures recorded in the 24 hours up to yesterday confirmed an additional 26 coronavirus-linked deaths and 2,010 new Covid cases in Scotland.

It means the death toll under this daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is 9,189.

The daily test positivity rate was 13.5%, up from 10.8% the previous day, according to data published on Tuesday.

However, the Scottish Government said that Public Health Scotland are aware of a “data flow issue” affecting NHS Scotland Pillar 1 lab test results since Monday afternoon which will affect figures reported on Tuesday and is being investigated.

There were 932 people in hospital on Monday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up one on the previous day, with 63 in intensive care, down five on the day before.

So far 4,320,370 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,910,253 have received their second dose.