There have been 2,969 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Scotland in the past 24 hours. 

According to Scottish Government statistics, there have been five new deaths in the same period. 

18 people were in intensive care yesterday, with 170 in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19.

Of the 42,310 new tests for Covid-19 reported results – 7.3% were positive.

A total of 7,701 people have now died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus.

3,681,620 people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccination and 2,617,450 have received their second dose.

Yesterday, four new deaths and 2,167 new cases were reported, the highest number of new infections detected in 24 hours since January.

Nicola Sturgeon confirmed on Tuesday a further easing of restrictions will be delayed for another three weeks. 

During an update to the Scottish Parliament, the First Minister announced the whole of Scotland will move to Level 0 from July 19. 

She also revealed the country might abandon all social distancing measures from August 9, on the condition that all over 40s will have received the Covid vaccine.

However, figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) released on Wednesday revealed Covid-19 deaths in Scotland have hit the highest number in almost two months.

The data shows 13 fatalities were recorded in the week of June 14-20, up by six on the previous week.