NICOLA Sturgeon is considering imposing tougher restrictions to combat the spread of Covid-19, she revealed this morning. 

The First Minister told Good Morning Britain more non-essential businesses may have their activities curbed if the Scottish Government decided it was necessary to further limit the reasons people had for leaving their homes. 

She said: "There is a question in my mind about whether we need to go a bit further in restricting non-essential business activities to cut even further the reasons that people have for being outside of their own home and that's something I will be looking at with my advisers over the next few days."

READ MORE: Tory MSP hopeful does 18 pull-ups ‘because SNP take responsibility for nothing’

Scotland is currently under a strict lockdown, with a legal requirement for people to stay at home and schools closed to all but the children of keyworkers and those deemed especially vulnerable. 

It is hoped that the current restrictions will be enough to bring the virus under control but the First Minster said she will look into whether further action is needed. 

READ MORE: NHS Louisa Jordan 'standing ready' for Covid patients as admissions increase

She added: "I hope the restrictions - if people abide by them and people have been fantastic at abiding by restrictions all along and that's not easy - if people abide by them, I hope and believe we can see the case rise stem and hopefully cases start to decline.

"But I'm not complacent about that yet, we are monitoring traffic numbers for example to see the extent to which this lockdown is keeping people at home."