A FURTHER 2649 coronavirus cases have been recorded in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed at today’s Scottish Government daily briefing.

That accounts for 11.3% of the total number of tests carried out, she told the conference.

Scotland has also recorded 78 deaths, taking the total death toll under the Government’s measurement – when a person dies after testing positive for Covid-19 in the previous 28 days – to 4779.

This figure differs from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) data. The body publishes all deaths where the virus is mentioned on the death certificate.

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Of the new cases, 660 are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 389 are in Lanarkshire and 357 are in Lothian.

There are 1467 people in hospital with coronavirus, which is close to the numbers seen at the peak of the first wave.

There are 100 people in intensive care which is below the first wave peak but the First Minister warned that pressure is still increasing on units, and they are “above normal capacity across the country”.

The First Minister also confirmed that by Sunday, 113,459 people will have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Scotland is now also more than half way through vaccinating care home residents with that jag.

Sturgeon added that from Monday the Scottish Government will publish daily statistics on Covid-19 vaccination numbers.

The news came as the latest NRS figures were published. 

A total of 6686 people have now died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus, according to the organisation.

This is a rise of 383 between December 21 and January 3.

The National:

In the week between December 21 and 27, 200 deaths were registered, a fall of three from the previous week.

Between December 28 and January 3 – the latest statistics available – this fell to 183 but the NRS warned as there were fewer registrations than usual in these weeks due to public holidays, death registrations are likely to be lower than the actual numbers of deaths in this period.

In the week to January 3 the majority of deaths – 111 – were in hospitals, with 63 in care homes and nine at home or in a non-institutional setting.