Coronavirus claims lives of nine more people in Scotland

Another nine people have died with coronavirus in Scotland.

It takes the death toll among confirmed Covid-19 patients to 2270, although counting presumed deaths the total is now more than 3700.

Speaking at the Scottish Government’s Sunday press briefing, health secretary Jeane Freeman highlighted that fewer deaths tend to be reported at weekends.

A total of 15,101 people have been diagnosed with the virus since the outbreak began, a rise of 60, while more than 100,000 Scots have now been tested overall by the NHS.

There are 44 patients in intensive care with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a drop of six on the day before.

But patients with coronavirus or coronavirus symptoms in hospital overall have increased by 24 to 1329.

Of those, 845 patients have tested positive for Covid-19, up four from 841 on Saturday.

Since the pandemic began, a total of 3560 people who had to be hospitalised with the virus have been able to go home.

Nicola Sturgeon has indicated that from the end of next week, the Scottish Government’s four-phase plan to ease out of lockdown could begin.

That’s due to the trends in deaths, hospitalisations and cases generally going downwards, while the R number – the virus’ reproduction rate – is estimated to have been below one for three weeks.

Highlighting recent revelations around Boris Johnson’s top adviser Dominic Cummings, Freeman issued a reminder to everyone in Scotland about the rules around self-isolation.

She said the “message may have become confused in the last 24 hours because of events in other parts of the UK”.

Speaking on Sunday, the health secretary said self-isolating is not the same as lockdown and means “you should not leave the house for any reason”.

Freeman told the briefing: “Self-isolation means the following: if you think you have the virus, if you have a persistent cough, or a fever, or loss of taste and/or smell, you should self-isolate at home for a minimum of seven days.

“In that time you should get tested if you can, bearing in mind that testing is now open to anyone over the age of five who has symptoms.

“At the same time anyone in your household should self-isolate for 14 days to see if they develop virus, and if they do, they should self-isolate for seven days from that point.

“From the eighth day, if you do not have any more symptoms you can go back, back to the lockdown measures that apply across the country.”