AS Scotland reached a new daily high for coronavirus case numbers, Nicola Sturgeon held a media briefing to urge the public to continue to comply with Covid guidance.

As well as a rise in cases since most legal restrictions were lifted in early August, there has also been an increase in hospitalisations.

With schools open again and life looking as normal as it has since the beginning of the pandemic, these figures are not unexpected but they are worrying.

We have the data and here’s the anecdote: I can’t think of a time during the last 18 months when so many people I knew were sick – both with coronavirus and various other bugs.

READ MORE: Scotland records highest ever daily number of Covid cases

Last week, the dreaded norovirus ripped through my daughter’s school. I am appropriately scared of catching coronavirus and folloW the guidance to minimise my risk. But the winter vomiting bug

and I have history. Three years in a row I caught it and the memory of those awful days of projectile vomiting and the rest are still sharp in my mind.

I suspect my daughter is part vampire or three-quarters witch. She never seems to catch anything. She’s still not had chicken pox, rarely gets a cold and hasn’t vomited since she was a toddler. So luckily, norovirus passed us by … this time.

Scientists say non-Covid illnesses, such as norovirus and chest infections, are on the rise in children. Restrictions have left people with lower immunity than usual and now that we’re all mixing again, you can see the result in every panicked school mum group chat across the country.

Coronavirus up, other nasties, up. We might only be in August but we do need to think ahead to winter if we’re to avoid the NHS becoming overwhelmed.

At the briefing on Friday, the First Minister said her government wasn’t currently considering a circuit-breaker-type lockdown to drive case numbers down.

She’s not now, but it goes without saying that she can’t rule it out in future. Some folk don’t like that. During the Tory spokesperson slot after the media briefing, Conservative MSP Craig Hoy said: “I notice she said ‘not right now’ but that still leaves the door open to those restrictions being brought in at some point in the future.’’

He said we need clarity from the Scottish Government that unless there is a “marked” change, then the re-imposition of restrictions won’t be considered.

Nobody wants to see our hard-won freedoms rolled back nor a return of a full lockdown. But the virus doesn’t care about political rhetoric or pledges. And we can’t rule out actions that we may need to take in the future just because the mere thought of them raises our collective blood pressure.

We all remember when what was supposed to be a short, sharp lockdown ran on for months and months, draining us of hope and patience in the process.

When Nicola Sturgeon tries to empathise with weary Scots and admits that she also struggled with lockdown, her critics accuse her of being “woe is me”.

The Unionist fringes believe that she secretly loves imposing restrictions and that she does so not because her scientific advisers tell her they are necessary to protect public health, but because she gets some kind of thrill from exploiting her powers as First Minister.

It’s nonsense, of course. But for some it’s more comfortable to believe that our leaders are acting selfishly than to consider the alternative – we are dealing with a deadly virus and the endpoint that we all covet is, for the moment, out of our grasp.

In those moments when I feel the prickly pull of a bout of crabitness and resentment about the possibility of going back to the bad old days of lockdown, I try to remember how incredibly lucky I am.

For some of my friends, lockdown never ended. Many of those who are in high-risk groups – or are caring for somebody who is – are living with self-imposed restrictions for their own safety.

These numbers are terrifying to them, and the fact that a relatively small number of positive cases result in death is of little comfort.

READ MORE: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon self-isolating after close contact has Covid

On BBC Radio Scotland’s Sunday Show yesterday, Professor Linda Bauld was asked about the prospect of restrictions being re-introduced.

“Things would need to get a lot worse in terms of hospital capacity for that to occur and I don’t see that on the immediate horizon despite there being some challenges in some areas,’’ she said.

It might not be on the immediate horizon, but I’m glad Nicola Sturgeon has thus far resisted the temptation to rule it out entirely. This crisis is not over and it requires balanced judgements; not focus-group friendly empty promises.

In the months ahead, our leaders will be faced with more tricky decisions – we should count ourselves lucky that we’re not the ones charged with making them.