FIVE more people have died in Scotland after contracting Covid-19, the First Minister has confirmed.

The total number of deaths among coronavirus patients now stands at 1862.

Nicola Sturgeon, speaking at the daily Scottish Government briefing, said 141 more people had been diagnosed with the disease in the past 24 hours.

However, the number of people in hospital dropped by 31 to 1453.

The number of people in intensive care also decreased by 2 to 80.

The First Minister said: “I want to emphasis again today that those figures should be treated with some caution.

“Although deaths can be registered at weekends, registration numbers at weekends are usually relatively low and can be particularly low following a Sunday.

"As I always do – as I always will – I want to stress that these numbers are not just statistics and should never be seen as that. They represent individuals whose loss is being felt deeply by all of their loved ones.

"I want to send again today my deepest condolences to everyone who is grieving as a result of this virus."