A FURTHER 54 coronavirus deaths have been registered in Scotland over the last 24 hours.

Speaking from the Scottish Government’s daily briefing, Nicola Sturgeon gave an update on the latest Covd-19 infection rates and deaths as 11 local authority areas prepared to go into level 4 restrictions.

The First Minister added there have been 1264 new positive cases, accounting for 6.7% of all tests carried out.

There were 1241 people in hospital with the virus, a decrease of nine on the previous day, and 88 people in intensive care, a decrease of seven.

Of the new cases, 420 are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 312 in Lanarkshire, 141 in Lothian.

The update came as the National Records of Scotland put the national Covid death toll above 5000.

The NRS figures differ from the Scottish Government’s as they include all deaths where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate.

Sturgeon said the figures are “really grim and distressing”.

She added: “Sometime in the future when we are through this pandemic we will want to consider how we as a country commemorate the lives that the virus has taken.”

The NRS said 5135 people have now died with coronavirus. The figures show 278 deaths relating to Covid-19 were registered between November 9 and 15, up 71 from the previous week

Of these, 198 were in hospital, 72 in care homes and eight at home or in a non-institutional setting.

There were 105 deaths in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 63 in Lanarkshire and 31 in Lothian.