Nicola Sturgeon has announced a return to a full "stay at home" coronavirus lockdown.

The First Minister said rising cases and concerns about the new variant of Covid-19 means even tighter restrictions are needed as we wait for the vaccination programme to protect enough people.

She announced people can only go outside for essential purposes, like shopping, medical appopintments and exercise.

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The measures will be legally enforceable and is similar to the lockdown of March last year.

She said: "I can confirm now, in summary, that we decided to introduce from tomorrow, for the duration of January, a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes. This is similar to the lockdown of March last year."

Glasgow Times: Today's announcement signals a return to a full lockdown of last year Today's announcement signals a return to a full lockdown of last year

The new guidance is a return to the ‘stay at home’ message, that was in place last year, during the full lockdown from March to July, and only meet one person from another household outdoors.

Over the weekend, the First Minister signalled her intention to introduce new measures.

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A day before she announced the new measures, Ms Sturgeon said, on twitter: “The rapid increase in Covid cases, driven by the new variant, is of very serious concern.

“The steep increases and severe NHS pressure being experienced in other parts of the UK is a sign of what may lie ahead. So we must take all steps to slow spread while vaccination progresses.”

The figures today 

More than 1900 people in Scotland have tested positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the daily total in a statement to parliament on Monday, after MSPs had been recalled to discuss a toughening of protection measures.

She confirmed that a total of 1905 people have tested positive since Sunday.

A total of 13,810 new tests for Covid-19 reported results, of which 15% were positive.

Delayed reporting over the festive period means that data concerning deaths, hospital admissions and regional breakdowns have not been issued.