ANOTHER 48 people have died in Scotland after contracting Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

A further 830 cases were also confirmed, with a positivity rate of 4%. It’s the lowest positivity rate for several weeks and falls below the World Health Organisation’s 5% limit at which pandemics are deemed to be “under control”.

The First Minister, speaking at the Scottish Government briefing, said the “rays of sunshine are a little bit brighter this week” as she revealed a record-breaking number of people were given their first vaccination in the previous 24 hours.

Hospital admissions have also fallen below the peak of the first wave in April.

The deaths, recorded in the past 24 hours among people who tested positive in the previous 28 days, bring the total under that measurement to 6599.

Some 1499 people are in hospital with confirmed Covid-19, 43 fewer than 24 hours previously.

Of those, 109 are in intensive care, a decrease of four, while the number of patients that have been in intensive care for more than 28 days has dropped by two to 28.

Of the new cases, 243 are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 145 are in Lanarkshire and 116 are in Ayrshire and Arran.

The remaining cases are spread across 10 other health boards.

 The First Minister went on to announce that record number of Scots received their first vaccine in the past 24 hours, with more than one million Scots given a jag so far. That's despite concerns extreme weather conditions would hamper the roll-out.

As of 8.30am, 1,048,747 people in Scotland had received their first dose of the vaccine – with a record high increase of 63,178 in one day. 

First doses have now been administered to 99.9% of residents in older people's care homes. At least 97% of over-80s living in the community have also had a first jag, as have 87% of 75 to 79-year-olds living in the community, and 54% of 70 to 74-year-olds.

Those figures mean the Scottish Government remains on track to give first doses to everybody over the age of 70 and everybody with a serious clinical vulnerability by mid-February.

to give first doses to everybody over 70 and everybody with a serious clinical vulnerability by the middle of February

By that date, many in the 65 to 69-year-old age group will also have had the first dose of the vaccine.

Sturgeon said: "All of that is really good news. The rays of sunshine that I spoke about last week undoubtedly are a wee bit brighter this week.

"But it's nevertheless important for me to continue to stress that the situation, especially in face of the new, more infectious variant – which now accounts for about three-quarters of all new cases in Scotland.

"That situation remains precarious, and so it demands still, from all of us, continued caution. The utmost caution, indeed."