SCOTLAND has seen an increase of 2137 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
However, this is lower than Friday’s confirmed increase of 2539 new cases.
No further deaths were recorded on Saturday as the register offices are closed over the public holidays. As of December 31, 4578 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died.
The daily test positivity rate is now at 10.8% – up from 9.7% on Friday.
READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland: UK delays Pfizer vaccine roll-out despite recommendation
Despite all of mainland Scotland being in the highest tier of restrictions – and warnings to stay at home amid the rising number of cases – police still had to deal with Hogmanay revellers at landmarks including Edinburgh Castle.
On Friday the First Minister tweeted: “‘Take Covid seriously’ – three words that can’t be stressed enough just now. Please listen to this doctor.”
Meanwhile, UK Government ministers have a “reckless” attitude towards dealing with the Covid crisis in schools, a English union chief has said.
The National Education Union’s joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted was commenting after the Government was accused of a U-turn regarding the closure of schools in London.
Dr Bousted told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What the Government should be doing is what the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are doing.
“You don’t get this chaos in the other countries of the United Kingdom.
“And does the Government really believe that somehow Covid in England is different than the other countries of the UK?
“I find the Government’s recklessness in this regard, both with educational professionals’ health, but also with community health, and the questions increasingly around children’s health, inexplicable.”
The row comes after figures showed a further 53,285 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Friday, with another 613 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
This was the fourth day in a row daily cases have been above 50,000, with a new record high of 55,892 cases reported on New Year’s Eve – the highest since mass testing began in late May.
Bousted has said her union will be holding an emergency meeting today to discuss the “chaos which is engulfing our schools”.
She added: “[Teachers] being told at half-past five on Twitter that the school would close next week having spent the whole Christmas preparing for the school to be open, and for safety, teachers now having to completely, over this weekend, change their teaching plans – they were going to be teaching in person, now they’re going to be providing remote learning online.
“We wrote to the Prime Minister before Christmas and we said if you look at the infection rates now among secondary school pupils they’re the highest range in being infected with Covid and primary pupils are the second-highest age range.
“We know that pupils now can transmit the virus through their homes, through to their families and into the community, they’re the most effective transmitter of the virus.”
READ MORE: Covid-19: UK Government urged to close schools in England amid variant fears
Deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), Professor Anthony Harnden, defended Government plans to delay the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine from three weeks to 12 weeks after the first jab.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that patients he had dealt with accepted the move, stating: “When it was explained to them that the vaccine offers 90% protection for one dose, and the priority was to get as many people vaccinated in the elderly and vulnerable community as possible, they understood. I think the country is all in this together.
“And, I think we really, really want to pull together to try and do the best strategy possible.”
Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said the current case figures are “fairly mild” compared to what is expected in a week’s time and that healthcare workers are “really worried” about the coming months.
“There’s no doubt that Christmas is going to have a big impact, the new variant is also going to have a big impact, we know that is more infectious, more transmissible, so I think the large numbers that we’re seeing in the South East, in London, in South Wales, is now going to be reflected over the next month, two months even, over the rest of the country.”
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