Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed the phased and gradual return to school will go ahead as planned on Monday.

However, she said the rest of the lockdown restrictions will remain in place until at least the end of February and possibly even longer.

It means primary 1-3 pupils will return to classes and some senior secondary pupils who have work for national assessment will also begin to return.

READ MORE: Storm Darcy: Cold Weather Payment triggered for postcodes in Glasgow

The First Minister said positive cases were slowing but progress was fragile.

Sturgeon said:  "A slight easing could cause cases to start rising quite rapidly. Even if older people have protection, it would put more pressure on the National Health Service.

She said for a period yet we need to "remain cautious".

Sturgeon said: "We cannot continue in lockdown indefinitely. We need to plan a phased return to as much normality as possible."

She said we must be driven more by "data than dates".

Sturgeon said: "If we open up too quickly to meet arbitrary dates we risk setting progress back. 100% normality is unlikely to be possible."

The daily statistics showed there were 773 new cases, which is 6% of all tests carried out on Monday.

There were 1383 people in hospital, down by 45 and there were 100 patients in intensive care, down 2.

There were 49 deaths registered yesterday.