A FURTHER seven people have died among people who recently tested positive for Covid-19 in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has announced in Holyrood.

The death toll under the measure used for the daily figures – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 7559.

In the past 24 hours, another 495 new cases were recorded, bringing the total number of positive tests for coronavirus in Scotland to 314,383.

The test positivity rate for those new cases was 3.6%, down slightly from yesterday's figure of 3.7%.

Some 341 people are currently in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19, a decrease of 12 since yesterday.

Of those in hospital, 28 were in intensive care, a decrease of five.

The First Minister also announced that 2,214,672 people have now received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 235,671 have received a second dose.

This amounts to another 32,272 Scots receiving a first dose of the vaccine and another 10,575 getting a second dose.