THERE will be restrictions on numbers in people's homes at Christmas, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister said no country will have a normal Christmas and limits on household gatherings were likely.

She said she wanted to be frank with people and not give “false assurances” now rather than changing her tune later.

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The First Minister was responding to comments made by Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director, that a normal Christmas was “fiction”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “This is really tough stuff. I’ve seen Jason Leitch’s comments. He’s trying to be frank with people. Not rule things out but not give false assurance.

“I want us to be able to celebrate Christmas as normal as possible in a global pandemic.

“The more we stick with rules now more we can do that.

“We are trying to deal with it now to give us best chance of greater normality at Christmas.

“Christmas this year for no country is going to be absolutely normal with no restrictions.

“We are unlikely to be able to celebrate Christmas with no limits on people in our houses.

“If Christmas day was tomorrow it would be pretty harsh but it’s not tomorrow.”

Ms Sturgeon urged people to work together now to get the virus numbers down.

Glasgow Times: Jason LeitchJason Leitch

She added: "The worse thing we could do is tell people what they want to hear and then worry about changing course later."

The daily report showed were 1712 new cases in Scotland. Of that 584 were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

There were 928 in hospital up 55 and 74 in intensive care up by 1 another and 17 deaths have been registered.

The R number, the rate at which one person infects others, is estimated at as high as 1.5.

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On BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director, said: “Christmas is not going to be normal.

"We are not going to be in large family groupings with multiple families coming around. That is fiction.

“I am hopeful, if we can get the figures down, we may get some form of normality. But people should get their digital Christmas ready.”