The daily tally of Scottish deaths and positive coronavirus cases was once again announced today with a warning - they may not accurately reflect the actual numbers.
Nicola Sturgeon once again gave the health warning about the Covid-19 daily tracking while announcing just nine new deaths were registered at 9am on Monday - which taken on its own might point to dramatic drop.
Before the holiday weekend, on Thursday there were 81 new deaths, and 70 on the Wednesday.
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The tracking of the virus is crucial in terms of working out if the nation is winning the fight against Covid-19 and when the lockdown restrictions can be eased.
Meanwhile, the number of positive Covid-19 cases dropped by half on Monday to 155. Before the Easter weekend, on Thursday there were 392 new cases, and 336, the previous 24 hours.
But Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that as previous weekends, the data being announced on Monday could not be treated as a realistic guage of what is happening.
As of 9am on Monday there have been 575 deaths from coronavirus - that's a near doubling of fatalities in six days, if the figures are to be believed.
On Tuesday, there were 296 deaths, with the numbers doubling at that point in around four-and-a-half days.
Ms Sturgeon explained at Monday's daily briefing that she wanted to sound "a note of caution' over the latest information revealing how Scotland has been affected by Covid-19.
On the number of positive cases, the First Minister said: "It is important for me to note now that we do not now have testing figures for the last 24 hours from labs in Tayside or Ayrshire and Arran, otherwise the number I have just reported would have been higher."
Total of 211 people were on Sunday night in intensive care, with either confirmed or suspected Covid-19 - a drop in ten on the previous day.
"Again I would caution about reading too much into that, at this stage," said Ms Sturgeon.
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After announcing the drop in daily deaths, she added: "I want to sound a note of caution about that figure in two ways. Firstly, the nine [deaths] is lower than in previous days, because while it is now possible to register deaths seven days a week in Scotland, we would always expect the number registered to be lower at the weekend. And that is undoubtedly particularly true over the Easter weekend.
"So I [would] expect the figures to be higher tomorrow and the following day, as any deaths from the last few days are registered.
"The second point, is a point I have made before, but it is very important to stress, that these figures that I have just reported today only include those deaths where an individual had tested positive for Covid-19."
On Wednesday, the National Records of Scotland will publish its second weekly report detailing all registered deaths from Covid-19, which will include suspected cases.
Last Tuesday some 74 deaths were reported in one day - after four in two days.
The reasons given then by the First Minister was that National Records of Scotland's reporting system was "not yet fully in operation for seven days a week".
She added: "Work is underway to change that."
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