THE First Minister has confirmed a further 28 people have died with coronavirus after testing positive in the last 28 days, the highest daily total since May 21.

Nicola Sturgeon said the figure means the total number of deaths under that measurement is now 2653.

Speaking at the Scottish Government daily briefing she said there had also been 1739 new positive cases found, accounting for 19.8% of people newly tested and 9.7% of total tests.

However, Sturgeon stressed that some of those cases include “catch-up” on the last few days given a recent backlog in testing.

Of the new cases there are 650 in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 520 in Lanarkshire, 250 in Lothian and 105 in Ayrshire and Arran. The other cases were spread across nine other health board areas.

There were also 873 people in hospital, an increase of 49. There were 73 people in ICU, an increase of three on the previous day.

The update came as it emerged that a total of 4376 people have now died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus, according to the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

A total of 75 deaths relating to Covid-19 were registered between October 12 and 18, an increase of 50 from the previous week

Some 58 of these deaths occurred in hospitals, 12 in care homes and five at home or in a non-institutional setting.

The statistics are published weekly and account for 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 they include suspected or probable cases of Covid-19.