Nicola Sturgeon's Covid briefing: First Minister updates public on latest Omicron figures

Nicola Sturgeon announced the latest Coronavirus figures at a press conference this afternoon, where she said that Omicron had replaced Delta as the dominant variant.

She said that 4336 positive cases of Covid were reported yesterday.

There were 696 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant, however, Sturgeon said this number “underestimates the true volume of Omicron cases”.

She said that 51.4% of reported cases were likely to be the Omicron variant, which has risen significantly from last Friday, when she announced that 15.5% of cases were likely to be Omicron. This means that Omicron has now replaced Delta as the dominant COVID strain circulating in Scotland.

The positivity rate currently stands at 10.1%, which has fallen from 10.8%.

522 of those with confirmed cases are in hospital, while 33 are in intensive care.

Sturgeon announced that there had been a further seven deaths, which brings the death toll under this daily measure to 9771.

A sign at a COVID 19 testing centre in the car park of the Bowhouse Community Centre in Grangemouth.

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