SCOTLAND has recorded a further 21 deaths of coronavirus patients in 24 hours.

The number brings the total under this measure - of people who died within 28 days of first testing positive - to 8928.

The latest figures also show that 2581 new cases of the virus were identified in Scotland in the past 24 hours.

This represents 9.5% of the 28,984 new tests for Covid-19 that reported results in the same time period.

Across Scotland yesterday there were 841 people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19. Of these, 47 were in intensive care.

In terms of the vaccination effort, 4,282,132 people have received the first jag, while a total of 3,875,966 have also received their second dose.

The Scottish Government has also begun a roll-out of third "booster" jabs, but data on these is not yet available.