Vaccinations continue to increase every day, the Deputy First Minister has said.

John Swinney said another 48,165 jags have been carried out, taking the total to 743,512.

Mr Swinney said it was another record number that had been carried out in one day

Mr Swinney said: "We have vaccinated 99% of people in older care homes, 92% of over 80s in community, 47% of 75 to 79 year-olds and 16% of 70 to 74 year olds."

He said the programme was on track to have vaccinated all over 70s by middle of this month.

He said: "We are making excellent progress with vaccinations. We have had formidable success in protecting individuals who are at greatest risk. We are moving as fast as we possibly can and if we can do that quicker we will do that quicker."

The government target was fro all over 80s to be vaccianted by today, February 5.

Professor Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director said: "All over 80s would be completed by the end of today."

He said he did not think at the outset that nine out of ten over 80s would take the vaccine as it had never been done before.

However, he added: "If you are over 80 and you don't know when you you are getting the vaccine and you want one, then contact your GP."

The latest daily statistics showed there were 895 new positive cases recorded in the last 24 hours. It represented 4.9% of tests for the second day in a row.

The World Health Organisation says that a test rate of below 5% is an indicator that the virus is under control.

Mr Swinney said the R number, the rate which one person infects others, is now between 0.7 to 0.9.

There 1794 were people in hospital, down 18 on the previous day and there were 123 patients in intensive care, down 4.

Another 61 deaths were registered of a person who had tested positve for Covid-19 in the previous 28 days.