Nicola Sturgeon is expected to give a Covid update today in light of rising case numbers in Scotland.

The First Minister is due to provide an announcement at 12.15pm this afternoon.

It comes after Scotland recorded its fifth consecutive day of daily case numbers above 3,000.

Yesterday's test positivity rate of 12.4% is the largest since July 5.

The last time Ms Sturgeon gave a Covid update was on August 3, where she confirmed Scotland's move to 'Beyond Level 0'.

Here, we take a look at how Covid figures have changes in Scotland since the last Covid announcement.


Yesterday's figures

 


Case numbers

 

For the last five days, daily case numbers in Scotland have remained above 3,000. 

The last time we saw case numbers this high was at the beginning of July, however we did not see them remain above 3,000 consecutively.

The highest number we've had since the last update was on Thursday, August 20, where we saw 3,613.

This hasn't surpassed the highest of the pandemic so far, when 4,234 cases were recorded on July 1.

Yesterday, the seven-day average hit 3,025, which is the first time the average has been above 3,000 since July 7.


Test positivity

 

Scotland's test positivity rate has remained aboce the WHO's guideline of 5%since the last update, with the exception of July 4 and 5, where we saw 4.7% and 4.9% respectively.

The highest we've seen in the last 20 days was yesterday's figure, which stood at 12.4%.


Hospitalisations

 

The number of people in hospital has remained above 300 since August 3. This figure is siginificantly less than the previous month, where we were seeing numbers like 400 and 500 daily.

Yesterday, Professor Devi Sridhar said hospitalisation figures are the ones to watch.

She told Channel 4 News: "What we have to see is actually what the wave looks like.

"The cases have gone up quite a lot, and the hospitalisations have stayed much lower than they have in the previous wave.

"So what we are seeing is a definite weakening.

"But what I think is a bit worrying though is when we look at Israel, which has been ahead of us, their hospitalisations are starting to track along cases, which they think reflects waning immunity from the vaccines, and that's what we want to avoid. But right now, I actually think we're doing decently well with the vaccines."