At Holyrood on Tuesday the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, will make a statement to parliament about the updated numbers and also what the Cabinet has agreed to do about the guidance from next week onwards.

The statement will begin at 2.20pm and you can watch on TV or on Parliament TV here.

It is likely that either today or tomorrow the number of people who have died within 28 days of their first lab confirmed report of Covid-19 infection and whose death has been recorded with National Records of Scotland will exceed 10,000.

It is three weeks since new restrictions were announced leading to the cancellation of pantomimes and football matches played behind closed doors. The one metre physical distancing rule was reintroduced and mask wearing in all public places continued. On 21 December when these measures were announced the number of positive cases was 5,242 and the number of people in hospital was 515. Yesterday the number of people in hospital was 1,707.

In an interview on Monday Ms Sturgeon said to STV’s Scotland Tonight: “Sometimes when you hear people talk about learning to live with Covid, what seems to be suggested is that one morning we’ll wake up and not have to worry about it anymore, and not have to do anything to try to contain and control it.

“That’s not what I mean when I say ‘learning to live with it’. Instead, we will have to ask ourselves what adaptations to pre-pandemic life – face coverings, for example – might be required in the longer-term to enable us to live with it with far fewer protective measures.

“We are in a position where we all want to get to as much normality as possible. All of us, me included, really crave that.

“But we need to recognise that this virus, although we hope omicron is milder than previous variants, this virus still takes lives and it still causes significant health impacts for people.

“So we have got to treat it seriously and not underestimate the damage that it can do.”

Commenting ahead of the First Minister’s Covid update on Tuesday Scottish Labour’s Health and Covid Recovery spokesperson Jackie Baillie saying that the statement: “is a chance to take a serious look at where we stand in suppressing this virus, and what the latest data is telling us.

“People and businesses need urgent answers – but too often the SNP have seemed more concerned with spin than facts.

“We need to make sure any and all restrictions are rooted firmly in the evidence, and backed up by proper financial support.

“We also need a real plan to protect health and social care, which have been pushed to breaking point due to staffing shortages. Hospitals up and down the country are struggling to cope, and the lack of social care packages are leaving vulnerable people stranded without support.

“The First Minister must provide the real solutions we need to protect lives and livelihoods through this wave.”

DateNumber of casesCases in LothianNew tests and test positivityICUHospitalPeople who have had third or booster doseDeaths
24 December 20217,0761,29755,780 (14.6%)345362,841,7039,822
29 December 202115,849
30 December 202116,8572,39871,612 (27.1%)348102,944,9779,845
31 December 202111,962*60,818 (22.6%)368592,979,3349,858
1 January 202217,065
2 January 202214,080
3 January 202220,2172,30465,860 (34.9%)381,0312,992,583
4 January 202217,25956,290 (35.3%)421,1473,006,1339,858
5 January 202116,1032,58069,327 (26.9%)421,2233,016,1989,872
6 January 202211,360*2,05957,217 (23.1%)431,2673,041,9619,890
7 January 202214,4862,25378,300 (21.7%)481,3233,063.0009,905
8 January 202212,60257,907 (25.1%)481,3623,082,231
9 January 20227,56138,423 (23.2%)551,3823,101,096
10 January 202211,8271,70747,019 (29.5%)541,4323,115,0659,934
11 January 202210,392(27.7%651,4799,950
12 January 2022
13 January 2022
14 January 2022501,5443,171,28910,038
15 January 20227,833461,54010,059
16 January 2022
17 January 20226,221579431,5573,204,31110,062
18 January 20227,752637421,5463,214,06210,093
19 January 2022
20 January 2022
21 January 2022
22 January 20226,768421,4583,245,885
23 January 20226,329411,4413,252,81910,199
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.