Coronavirus: 3285 new cases reported in record high

Scotland has recorded the highest number of daily cases of Covid-19 since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Official Scottish Government figures on Monday indicated that a total of 3285 new cases were reported overnight.

The previous highest number of daily cases was 2999, recorded last week.

Of the 27,226 new tests for Covid-19 that reported results, 12.6% were positive.

No further deaths were reported.

A total of 202 people were in hospital on Sunday with recently confirmed Covid-19, with 20 patients in intensive care.

So far, 3,765,379 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 2,691,775 have received their second dose.

The latest figures come as a virologist at the University of Edinburgh urged caution as lockdown restrictions are eased.

Dr Eleanor Gaunt, an expert on respiratory viruses at the Roslin Institute, told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland that the country is in a “very delicate situation”.

She said: “We’re seeing right now an increase in cases, not just like a linear increase in the number of cases, but they’re really rapidly rising and we don’t know what the consequences of that are going to be as yet.

“So we’re in a very delicate situation right now and we should be proceeding with the highest level of caution.”

She added: “Right now, we are not in a position of control and so we just need to press pause effectively and let the vaccination programme catch up with the number of cases and get the situation back under control.”