SCOTLAND has recorded 22 deaths of coronavirus patients in the last 24 hours, the most in a single day since late July. 

This increase is the largest since the same number of deaths were recorded on July 22.

There were 36 deaths recorded on July 28, but only nine had happened in that 24-hour window, with the others being recorded retrospectively.

The Scottish Government figures released on Friday also show that almost 7000 new cases of Covid were recorded since yesterday as the sustained surge of the virus continues.

The data shows that 6815 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the past 24 hours, representing 11.1% of the 65,183 new tests for the disease that reported results in that time period.

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This means Scotland had a test positivity rate of more than double the 5% threshold which the World Health Organisation says indicates that the virus is under control.

Elsewhere, Public Health Scotland data shows the nation has a seven-day test positivity rate of 12.6%, also far exceeding the threshold.

The 22 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours bring the total under this measure – of people in Scotland who died within 28 days of first testing positive for Covid-19 – to 8232.

Hospitalisations are also continuing to rise, the latest figures show. There are now almost 1000 people in hospital across Scotland with the disease.

Yesterday there were 977 people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19. Of these, 82 were in intensive care.

In terms of the vaccination effort, 4,135,329 people in Scotland have received their first dose of the Covid vaccine. A total of 3,762,367 people have also received their second dose.