SCOTLAND has recorded a further 41 deaths of coronavirus patients in 24 hours.

This brings the total under this measure, of people who died within 28 days of testing positive, to 11,469.

The latest data on the pandemic also shows that there were 2383 people in hospital with Covid-19.

This is equal to the record-high number set on March 29. However, there are currently five more people in intensive care (30) with the disease than there were on that date (25).

There have also been 6935 new cases of Covid-19 reported in the past 24 hours. 11.6% of these were reinfections.

However, Public Health Scotland (PHS) has flagged that these newly reported figures may be "a little lower than expected" due to the processing timings. Updated numbers will be released on Monday.

In terms of the vaccination effort, 4,355,289 people have received their first jag, 4,093,341 have received their second, and have 3,452,587 received a third dose or booster.

The news comes as Covid infection levels hit a record high in the UK.

Some 4.9 million people in the UK are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week ending March 26, up from 4.3m in the previous week, the Office for National Statistics said.

Kara Steel, senior statistician for the ONS Covid-19 infection survey, said: “Infection levels remain high, with the highest levels recorded in our survey seen in England and Wales and notable increases among older age groups.

“The rapid rise continues to be fuelled by the growth of the Omicron BA.2 variant across the UK.”