NICOLA Sturgeon has said the latest daily number of 6835 Scottish Covid cases is "by far highest number in a single day".
Scotland has also recorded four new Covid deaths, bringing the death toll under this daily measure to 8103.
Speaking during a Scottish Government briefing, Sturgeon there was also a record number of tests on Thursday.
She said the daily test positivity rate is 14.2%, up from 11.5% the previous day.
A total of 479 people were in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 53, with 47 patients in intensive care, no change.
As of 8.30am this morning, 4,095,463 people in Scotland had received their first dose of the vaccine.
In addition, 3,629,482 have received their second dose.
Sturgeon said: "As always, my condolences go to everyone who has lost someone as a result of the virus.
"We know that being fully vaccinated makes us significantly less likely to fall seriously ill. That is why the high number of new cases that we are seeing has not so far led to the same number of hospitalisations that we saw in previous waves.
"That said, the case numbers that we are seeing at the moment are still a cause for concern."
She went on: “In the past seven days we have reported more new cases than at any previous time in the pandemic, although I refer back to my point about higher levels of testing, but case numbers have roughly doubled over the course of the past seven days.
“It’s important to point out that case numbers are rising across the UK just now, but after a period of slower increases in Scotland the rise here is particularly sharp at the moment.
“That is possibly, at least in part, a reflection of the fact that our schools return earlier, with the increased interactions that come with that, and although vaccination has significantly weakened the link between a high volume of new cases and serious harm to health it hasn’t completely broken that link.
“So even if a much smaller proportion of people who get Covid now need to go to hospital, which is the case thankfully, basic arithmetic tells us that a small percentage of a large number is still going to be a significant number of people and indeed in recent days we have seen an increase of the number of people in hospital.
“Last Friday 312 people were in hospital with Covid, today that figure is 479.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel