NHS Highland area reports 15 further Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours; figure comes as Scotland reported 558 new positive tests for the coronavirus

FIFTEEN new Covid-19 infections have been detected in the NHS Highland region.

The cumulative number of positive tests recorded in the health board area since the beginning of the pandemic rose to 609 from 594 when the Scottish Government released the latest daily update at 2pm.

Across the whole of Scotland there were 558 fresh positive tests – the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic.

The number of cases represented 9.5 per cent of all tests carried out – a percentage that has continued to rise in recent days.

But almost half of all new cases were in the one health board area, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which reported 255 fresh infections.

It, combined with other central belt health boards in Lothian (119) and Lanarkshire (61), accounted for 435 of the new infections in the past day –- or more than three-quarters of Scotland's latest cases.

Nationally, there were 89 people in Scotland's hospitals last night who were recently diagnosed with Covid-19 – up from 85 on Thursday. Of those, 11 people were in intensive care – an increase of one since yesterday.

In the north of Scotland, there were three new cases of Covid-19 in NHS Eileanan Siar, which saw its cumulative total rise to 13. NHS Shetland and NHS Orkney reported no change in their cumulative totals overnight.

But NHS Grampian reported 12 new positive cases for a cumulative tally of 2171, while NHS Tayside detected a further 29 infections for an overall total of 2337.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon has moved to urge all of Scotland's people to "take this seriously".

She said much had been made of recent clusters in universities and their halls of residence, but stressed that the pandemic is affecting everyone. She said: "No one should think or be under the impression that the Covid threat right now is just a university problem and that there is no need for the rest of us to be taking this seriously."

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