SCOTLAND is entering an "economic emergency" unprecedented in our lifetimes, Nicola Sturgeon has warned.

The First Minister issued the frank assessment as she addressed the latest mass job losses to be announced during lockdown.

Rolls-Royce laid put plans for 700 redundancies at its plant in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, yesterday.

The National:

Sturgeon said: "That announcement will have been devastating news for the workforce and their families at what is already an anxious time.

"Unfortunately, it may not be the last of its kind in the period ahead.

"The Scottish Government will do everything we can to ensure as good an outcome as we can.

"Alongside a public health emergency, we are now dealing with an economic emergency on a scale that none of us have experienced before.

"That requires and it will get the attention and focus of the Scottish Government, just as the health emergency has and will continue to get."

Mass losses have already been announced in the aviation sector, with further cuts expected across the economy when the UK Government's furlough scheme comes to an end.

Sturgeon said teams are working to shore up the manufacturing sector by developing a personal protective equipment (PPE) production model that could supply not only Scottish settings, but also health and social care settings in the rest of the UK and beyond.

While 57,000 specialist fluid-resistant surgical facemasks were needed by the health sector weekly before Covid-19, that has now risen to 4.5 million.

As many as 100million have been imported from China, with another 60m to come.

But ministers now want to help Scottish companies diversify and produce the vital items.

She cited Annan's Alpha Solway, Berry BPI in Greenock and CalaChem in Grangemouth as firms already adapting to produce hand sanitiser, non-sterile gowns and other items, with some of the materials for this work sourced from other Scots businesses.