NICOLA Sturgeon is this week set to confirm if Scotland will scrap most Covid restrictions on August 9.

The First Minister is due to hold a Scottish Government briefing on Tuesday, August 3, where she will reveal if the country can move “beyond level zero”.

If things progress as planned, it could mean an end to the majority of lockdown rules in Scotland, including social distancing, however the use of face coverings will continue in certain situations for some time.

Speaking last week, Ms Sturgeon said: "What we'll be doing between now and then is weighing up the different factors that will inform that decision.

"Several of these factors give us really strong grounds for hope and that's positive, although others remind us of the need for continued caution."

She said Scotland is in a "much better place" than it was at the start of the pandemic, or even at the beginning of this month.

She added: "Case number have more than halved in the past three weeks.

"To put all this in comparative terms within the UK, at the start of this month Scotland accounted for five of the top 10 local authority Covid hotspots across the UK.

"At this stage, we have none in the top 150 local authority hotspots across the UK."

Latest figures show a further nine coronavirus deaths and 1018 new cases were recorded in Scotland in the 24 hours up to yesterday.

It brings the death toll under the daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 7,939.

The daily test positivity rate is 4.9%, down from 6.2% the previous day.

A total of 445 people were in hospital on Friday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 29 on the previous day, with 64 patients in intensive care, a rise of four.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recorded the most cases in the past 24 hours, with 236, followed by Lothian with 192 and Lanarkshire with 174.

So far, 4,009,611 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,180,160 have received their second dose.