Nicola Sturgeon said there will be no new covid lockdown restrictions imposed this week.

The First Minister said, in her latest update: "No immediate changes are being proposed to the mitigation measures."

She said the decision "reflects the assessment that the situation has improved but it remains fragile heading into the winter period."

Sturgeon said: "Over past three weeks the decline has levelled off and we are reporting a slight increase in cases."

She said three weeks ago new cases were just under two and a half thousand a day now they are just above over two and a half thousand. 

Hospitals, she said,  were under pressure with more people admitted to hospital and Sturgeon said the winter flu season could add to the pressure.

She said: "We are not experiencing a surge in new cases like in August but we can't ignore the fact case numbers are starting to creep up again."

The latest statistics showed there were 2262 new cases in the last 24 hours.

There were 917 people in hospital hospital yesterday with Covid and 59 patients in intensive care.

Another 20 deaths were recorded  in last 24 hours taking the total to 9072.