Residents at a sheltered housing complex in Kilmarnock, have been advised to stay in their homes after a suspected case of coronavirus was discovered.

It comes just hours after health secretary Jeane Freeman confirmed the number of confirmed cases of the Covid-19 virus in Scotland had risen to three overnight.

She told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: "I can confirm that overnight we were informed of two more cases. Obviously at this point, I'm sure you can appreciate that there isn't more I can say. We will release more information later - so that takes our total number of cases in Scotland to three."

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The sheltered accommodation was locked down after one resident, who had recently travelled to South East Asia, began displaying symptoms on Tuesday afternoon.

Chris Milburn, customer services director for site manager Hanover Scotland, said: “Yesterday afternoon, a resident at one of our developments in Ayrshire who had recently returned from south-east Asia reported feeling unwell.

“Because the well-being of our residents and staff is our prime concern, our site manager immediately contacted the NHS and the resident was taken to hospital for tests.

“We took the decision at the same time to ask residents to stay in their homes until this morning as a precaution.

“We have been in touch with each resident this morning and advised them that, in line with advice published by NHS Inform, they can carry on as normal.”

Ms Freeman added: "There are a number of steps that need to go through with the patients concerned and other matters before we can release any level of information, partly it's about patient confidentiality, partly it's about making sure that we get the right clinical responses to cases.

"So later in the day, we will be able to let you and others know, but at this point all I can confirm is that we have two more cases, bringing the total to three."

As of Tuesday afternoon, 915 tests had been carried out for the condition.

The Scottish Government has warned that as many as 80% of the population could become infected by the virus, with potentially 4% of this group requiring hospital treatment.

But Ms Freeman said: “Not all of those people will require hospital treatment at the same time.”

She said the Government was looking at capacity in the NHS and “what more we can do now in order to create additional headroom inside the health service”.

Consideration is also being given to how to increase capacity in areas of the NHS such as high oxygen therapy for patients, Mr Freeman said.

Meetings are also taking place with local government leaders at Cosla to see what can be done to ensure patients do not have to stay in hospital longer than is needed because they are waiting for care arrangements.

The Health Secretary said: “There is more than we need to do, we still have too many people not leaving at the point when the hospital has finished delivering clinical care.”

She spoke after figures published on Tuesday showed that the problem of delayed discharge had reached a new high.

In January there were 1,640 patients whose discharge had been delayed, a rise of 11% from the same month a year before and the highest total since revised data definitions came into place in July 2016.

Ms Freeman has already told MSPs that emergency legislation could be introduced to support efforts to deal with the coronavirus.

This could allow the Scottish Government to take “extraordinary” action, such as making vaccinations compulsory for healthcare workers.

The emergency legislation, which is expected to be passed in Westminster later this month, will also waive some regulations to make it easier for former NHS Scotland staff to return to their old jobs to ease the pressure on the health service.

Ms Freeman told MSPs on Tuesday that the new powers reflected the “extreme seriousness of the challenge we now face”.

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She said: “The emergency legislation will, for example, allow temporary lifting of some requirements of registration to allow former NHS staff to return to work should they be needed and should they wish.

“The Bill will also enable us to require the mandatory vaccinations for health and social care workers – the flu vaccine – if we consider that the spread of the virus may continue into next year’s flu season.

“Given the projections of staff absences and the pressure on the NHS, we may wish to do all we can to protect both the workforce and patients.”