NICOLA Sturgeon will today hold a coronavirus briefing after record numbers of Covid infections has prompted ministers to consider reimposing restrictions including a circuit-breaker lockdown.
The First Minister's update on the pandemic will be held from St Andrew's House, Edinburgh at 12.15pm and she will be joined by national clinical director Jason Leitch.
According to data released yesterday 4925 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the previous 24 hours, while 14 more people had died after testing positive. The latest figures revealed 426 patients were in hospital, including 47 in intensive care yesterday with recently confirmed Covid-19.
READ MORE: Covid Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon warns she can't rule out imposing restrictions
The surge in infections have seen a third of all 203 schools in the Highlands affected by outbreaks with many pupils returning to remote learning just two weeks after going back to class after the summer holidays.
Grantown, Kingussie, Culloden and Fort William's Lochaber secondary schools have "a significant number of year groups self-isolating", Highland Council said.
Aviemore Primary School and Thurso's Pennyland Primary have been closed to some pupils, while Kincraig's Alvie primary has required a one-day closure.
The council said the region had seen an "exponential increase" in cases.
Coronavirus infections in Scotland have been surging since almost all restrictions were relaxed at the beginning of August, with the daily rate exceeding 5000 for the first time in the pandemic earlier this week. The 5021 cases came as hospital admissions rose by 30 to 391.
On Tuesday the First Minister warned that Scotland was at a "fragile and potentially pivotal moment" that could force her to consider reimposing harsher restrictions. She has since said she does not want to return to "anything like a full lockdown".
Sources told The Times on Thursday that reversing freedoms introduced during the summer, starting with the most recent changes, were likely to be among the first options considered by ministers.
"There are two options: You could either put in a circuit breaker, you could shut down completely for a short period. Or you could move back through the stages and say we are going to limit indoors gatherings, we are going to reintroduce distancing," a source close to government planning said.
Scotland imposed tougher restrictions on areas with higher levels of Covid-19 earlier in the pandemic, but it has not yet deployed a national circuit breaker. Wales and Northern Ireland tried this approach last year and it was also used in Australia and New Zealand.
In an interview on Wednesday, Sturgeon said: "I don't want to pre-empt any decision that might or might not — and I hope will not — have to be taken about the imposition of the restrictions.
"But if we, all of us, take the basic precautions right now that we know can slow this virus, then I hope no re-imposition of restrictions will be necessary.
"But I also know that no sensible first minister, in the face of an infectious virus, would rule anything out, because protecting the population has to be the priority."
One public health expert said a new alternative to curb transmission may be introducing a system that asks people to produce evidence of their vaccination status or a recent Covid-19 test before they enter hospitality venues.
The latest pandemic restrictions were lifted in Scotland on August 9, with nightclubs reopening for the first time in 16 months and social distancing rules being scrapped. However, schools are operating under strict conditions with parents largely banned from premises.
Asked if she relaxed lockdown rules too swiftly, Sturgeon said: "No — in fact, at the time, most people criticised me for not moving out of Level 0 quickly enough. These are always judgments, there's no exact science when you're dealing with a global pandemic of an infectious virus."
The First Minister went on to urge people to take steps to counter the rise in cases.
She said: "This is, as I said yesterday, a potentially fragile moment in our journey through this pandemic and it comes down to all of us, even though life feels so much more normal again, we've got to continue to do the basic things and take the basic precautions of hygiene, face coverings, staying outdoors, ventilating rooms indoors."
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