Eight Covid deaths and 5858 new cases recorded in 24 hours

Scotland has recorded the deaths of eight coronavirus patients as well as 5858 cases in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data.

Figures published by the Scottish Government indicate this takes the death toll under the daily measure of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days to 8111.

The daily test positivity rate is 14.2%, the same as the previous day.

A further 13,998 vaccinations were carried out in the past 24 hours – the lowest figure since February.

Of those, 2615 were first doses and 11,383 were second doses, taking the total figures to 4,098,078 and 3,640,865 respectively.

As of Friday there were 494 people in hospital with recently confirmed coronavirus, an increase of 15 from the previous day.

The number of patients in intensive care is up by two to 49.

At a Scottish Government coronavirus briefing on Friday, Nicola Sturgeon announced 6835 new cases in the past 24 hours – the second time in a week that a record daily figure has been reported.

The First Minister said the Scottish Government was closely monitoring any rise in serious illnesses and “people being hospitalised”.

“In the past seven days we have reported more new cases than at any previous time in the pandemic, although I refer back to my point about higher levels of testing, but case numbers have roughly doubled over the course of the past seven days,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“It’s important to point out that case numbers are rising across the UK just now, but after a period of slower increases in Scotland the rise here is particularly sharp at the moment.

“That is possibly, at least in part, a reflection of the fact that our schools return earlier, with the increased interactions that come with that.”

She added that the vaccination programme had “significantly weakened” but not “completely broken” the link between cases and serious illness.