NICOLA Sturgeon has welcomed "real grounds for optimism" as she announced the latest coronavirus figures.
The First Minister expressed her condolences as she confirmed another 22 people have died in Scotland after contracting Covid-19.
A further 591 cases were also recorded in the past 24 hours, with a positivity rate of 2.5%.
The deaths, registered among those who tested positive in the previous 28 days, bring the total under that measurement to 7483.
Some 556 people are in hospital with recently confirmed coronavirus, a decrease of 26 in 24 hours.
Of those, 42 are in intensive care, a drop of seven.
Another 16,642 people received their first vaccine dose in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,825,800.
A further 16,642 people have been given their second dose, bringing the total to 141,433.
Addressing the Scottish Parliament ahead of First Minister’s Questions, Sturgeon said falling hospital admission, cases and deaths, as well as soaring vaccination figures, give “real grounds for optimism”.
She confirmed primary children will return to school next week as planned along with more senior secondary pupils.
Children in primaries 4-7 are due to join their younger classmates back in school from Monday.
Up to four adults from two households will also be able to meet outside from Friday.
The First Minister added: "It is exactly a year ago today that the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 to be a pandemic. The last 12 months have been incredibly tough, unimaginably tough for everybody.
"But as I indicated on Tuesday, we do now have real grounds for optimism – albeit cautious optimism.
"Case numbers, hospitalisations, and deaths, have all fallen in recent weeks – and when we publish the latest estimate of the R number later today, we expect it to show that it remains below 1."
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