NICOLA Sturgeon is to give a televised address to the nation tomorrow as fears grow over the Omicron coronavirus variant.
It comes as Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said further coronavirus restrictions are now inevitable.
The First Minister is expected to announce new restrictions to prevent what she warned would be a "tsunami" of Omicron cases.
BBC's Political Editor Glen Cambell tweeted: "As well as Keir Starmer giving TV address tonight in response to Boris Johnson's booster update, hearing Nicola Sturgeon will have similar opportunity tomorrow."
He addded: "Sturgeon broadcast will be on in Scotland. Mark Drakeford will speak this evening in Wales".
Scotland has recorded 26 confirmed new cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the past 24 hours, taking the overall number to 186.
Asked about more restrictions in response to the Omicron outbreak, Mr Yousaf told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think it’s inevitable that we will announce additional, protective measures.”
It is the strongest indication that additional measures will be introduced, and follows comments by Scotland’s Deputy First Minister John Swinney that ministers were going to consider reimposing more restrictions, over the weekend.
Changes to the current coronavirus rules will be announced at Holyrood on Tuesday, Mr Yousaf added.
Speaking about the impact on the health service of speeding up the vaccine booster rollout, Mr Yousaf said: “We’re going to have to strain every sinew that we possibly can in order to ensure we meet (the target).
“That includes potentially having to move NHS staff away from other core duties to do this.”
He added that there needs to be a “huge increase” in the number of daily doses being administered from the current level of approximately 40,000 to an estimated 70,000 per day.
Mr Yousaf also said the Scottish Government wanted “as much support from the Treasury” as possible after warning “already there has been an impact on businesses through some of the advice that has been issued”.
Public Health Scotland last week urged people to postpone Christmas parties because of the increase in Omicron cases across the country, although hospitality industry groups said the advice was a “heavy, heavy blow”.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson insists he 'broke no rules' after joining No.10 Christmas quiz
Latest figures published by the Scottish Government on Monday show 3,756 Covid-19 cases were recorded in the past 24 hours and no deaths, although registry offices are generally closed at weekends.
The Covid-19 death toll in Scotland under the daily measure, of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days, remains at 9,719.
The daily test positivity rate was 11.8%, up from 10.2% the previous day.
There were 561 people in hospital on Sunday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 20 on the previous day, with 39 in intensive care, up two.
A total of 4,364,519 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 3,976,670 have received their second dose, and 2,154,571 have received a third dose or booster.
Ahead of the First Minister’s coronavirus statement to Holyrood on Tuesday, the Scottish Conservatives reiterated calls for mass vaccination centres.
“For more than a month, the Scottish Conservatives have been calling for the reopening of mass vaccination centres to speed up the vaccine booster rollout,” Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said.
“The rapid rollout of mass vaccine centres and more drop-in clinics is now a necessity. It is mission critical that the booster jag programme accelerates to win the race between the vaccine and the virus.”
He said speeding up the booster jag rollout is “likely to be the crucial difference between avoiding or introducing stricter restrictions”.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton, said: “After pestering the Health Secretary for months we finally have an ambitious target for ramping up booster vaccines but we also need to see frontline NHS staff given the additional resources they need, guarantees of financial protections for small businesses, particularly in hospitality, and measures to ensure that everyone who needs it can access mental health support during these difficult times.”
He warned against any extension of Scotland’s vaccine passport scheme to cover more venues, claiming they “give people a potentially fatal false confidence”.
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