Coronavirus has claimed the lives of 24 more people in Scotland, while confirmed cases of the virus are nearly 15,000.
It takes the death toll among confirmed Covid-19 patients to 2245 but counting suspected deaths the total is close to 3700.
There have been 113 new cases of the disease confirmed overnight, taking the total in Scotland since the pandemic began to 14,969.
A total of 1257 patients are in hospital overall with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a fall of 61 in the last 24 hours and the lowest figure recorded since April 1.
The numbers in intensive care with coronavirus or coronavirus symptoms have fallen by one to 50, the fewest since March 24 – the day after lockdown began.
Speaking at the Scottish Government’s daily briefing on Friday, Nicola Sturgeon said the statistics showed that the virus continues to be suppressed.
It comes the day after she unveiled Scotland’s four-phase plan to slowly lift lockdown restrictions, with phase one likely to begin from next Thursday, May 28.
The First Minister said the government’s “route map” had been seen by 100,000 Scots since its publication.
Sturgeon stressed that none of the proposed phase one changes – like allowing outdoor meeting between households and allowing non-contact sports and activities like golf and fishing – are in place yet.
She added that not all of the changes would be made next week, although she hoped most would be.
The one thing that would further extend the lockdown would be “taking our foot off the brake” and allowing the virus to take hold again, the First Minister told the briefing.
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