SCOTLAND could now be seeing “sustained signs of hope” in the battle against coronavirus, the First Minister said, after the death toll fell for the second week in a row.

Nicola Sturgeon welcomed the decrease in the number of deaths, but stressed this “doesn’t mean we can relax yet”.

Speaking at First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament, she said that if transmission rates continue to fall, Scotland could “gradually relax the lockdown restrictions”.

Weekly figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show there were 415 deaths linked to coronavirus in the seven days up to Sunday May 10 – down by 110 from the previous week and 244 lower than the total two weeks ago.

The NRS data shows there have been 3213 deaths involving the virus recorded in Scotland as of May 10.

Sturgeon said: “I readily acknowledge that no trend in statistics can ever comfort the many people who have lost a loved one to this virus, and my thoughts and sympathies are with each and every one of them.

“But this week’s figures do offer further, and perhaps sustained, signs of hope.

“The number of Covid deaths, although still far too high, has fallen for the second week in a row. The number of deaths in care homes has also reduced for a second week.”

A total of 238 of deaths linked to coronavirus were in care homes in the week leading up to May 10, Sturgeon said, down from 314 the week before.

Despite the reductions in fatalities, she stressed: “That doesn’t mean we can relax yet, there are still too many cases, the reproduction rate of the virus is still higher than we would like and we continue to learn more about those most vulnerable to the disease.

“The trends we are seeing now are positive, if transmission rates continue to fall, we will be able to gradually relax the lockdown restrictions.”

However she insisted the Scottish Government will “continue to err on the side of caution”.

She added: “Although we are seeing positive signs in the case numbers, those in hospital and those dying from this virus, we are not through this pandemic yet.”

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw pressed her on the situation in care homes, claiming Scotland has “fewer tests for our care homes, more deaths in our care homes”.

He raised the case of the Highgate Home in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, where he said 22 residents have died but “the majority” of their carers have not been tested.

Carlaw branded that an “outrage”, telling the First Minister: “One carer at the home, Andy Sturgeon, said he has still not been tested. He fears he and his colleagues may be bringing the disease into the home.”

Sturgeon said testing in care homes is based on clinical advice, but the Scottish Government has expanded that so where there is an outbreak in a care home, “we now have testing of all residents and all staff, whether or not they are symptomatic of the virus”.

She said if that is not happening, “we will investigate”.

She also highlighted research by the London School of Economics which she said “suggested in England and Wales the real care home death toll is double what the official figures are showing”.

Sturgeon said: “I am confident that the figures we are publishing in Scotland are accurate, and I’m not sure that is the case elsewhere in the UK right now.

“I’m not even speaking as First Minister here, I’m speaking as a human being, I deeply regret every single death from this virus.

“There is probably not an hour goes by right now where I don’t question myself, I don’t agonise over the decisions we are taking, to make sure we are learning as we go and we are getting these decisions as right as possible.”

She stressed her “over-riding focus” is to “protect the population of this country as best I can against what we know is a potentially deadly virus”.

Sturgeon said: “That is my focus every waking moment right now, and it will absolutely continue to be so.”