Nicola Sturgeon has warned of the impact the "very, very infectious" Omicron variant is having on Scotland - with another day of a record number of cases and a jump in hospital admissions.
Today's daily total of Covid-19 cases broke yesterday's record by over 1,000, with 16,857 new cases in the last 24 hours.
The total number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 sharply rose by 131 to 810 - the biggest increase in weeks and not seen since September when Scotland faced a peak in infections.
Hospital admissions jumped up by 80 in yesterday's daily figures from the Scottish Government.
The First Minister appealed to everyone to keep following government advice by; limiting contacts with people in other households, if you do mix with others, take a test just before you go and if positive isolate, wear face coverings in indoor places and wash hands regularly.
Ms Sturgeon tweeted: “Yet another record tally of reported cases in today – reflecting fact that Omicron is very, very infectious.
“Likelihood of getting it just now if you mix with others is high. Tho remember – being boosted gives you significant protection against becoming v ill with it.
“Just as notable than cases is the steep rise in hospital occupancy, the largest single day increase in a while – a reminder that even if there is a lower % hospitalised through Omicron, sheer volume will still put acute pressure on NHS – and result in serious illness for many.
“Concerning those these numbers are, they would be even higher but for good compliance with public health advice.
“As we approach the New Year, I am appealing to everyone to keep following this advice – for your own sake and also to help the NHS.”
READ MORE: Covid continues to surge as almost 17,000 new cases and nine deaths recorded overnight
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