Further 20 deaths as 691 new coronavirus cases reported

A further 20 people have died from coronavirus and 691 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister told MSPs on Holyrood’s Covid-19 Committee that the number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the disease had now risen to 7,461.

The daily test positivity rate now stands at 3.1%, Sturgeon added.

She also told the committee that by 8.30am on Wednesday a total of 1,809,158 Scots had received their first dose of the vaccine, an increase of 19,781 on the previous day’s total.

Other figures on the number of people in hospital will be available later in the day, the First Minister said.

Meanwhile the National Records of Scotland (NRS) has said a total of 9,725 people have died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus.

The figures show 141 deaths relating to Covid-19 were registered between March 1 and March 7, down 89 on the previous week.

Of these, the majority – 84% – happened in hospital at 119, with 14 in care homes and eight at home or in a non-institutional setting.

The statistics are published weekly and cover all deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

They differ from the lab-confirmed coronavirus deaths announced daily by the Scottish Government because the NRS figures include suspected or probable cases of Covid-19.