New weekly coronavirus cases have fallen for the third consecutive week as Lanarkshire stands on the cusp of level four restrictions.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed there had been 136 new cases in Lanarkshire on Sunday at her daily press briefing in Edinburgh on Monday.
As a result, last week there were 1521 new Covid-19 cases in the region - the lowest weekly tally since the end of September.
However, the "stubbornly high prevalence" of the virus in the region means level four restrictions could come into effect on Friday, November 20.
The First Minister said she would confirm what restrictions would be in place from Friday at the Scottish Government's weekly review tomorrow.
She added: "One of the issues we are looking at very closely is whether current restrictions are reducing Covid rates quickly enough in some areas.
"These areas have stable but still stubbornly high prevalence of the virus.
"Stubbornly high prevalence causes us concern for a number of reasons. Firstly, it means that we don't have as much assurance that we would want to have that our hospital and intensive care services are able to cope as we go deeper into winter.
"The second reason I want to highlight is that stubbornly high prevalence means that we might have less flexibility to offer some limited and careful easing of restrictions over the Christmas period which we are very keen to do."
The figures announced today were lower than expected but the First Minister was unable to confirm why.
She added: "Today's figure is lower than we would have expected it to be so we are looking to see whether there are any other reason that might be the cause of that."
In total, 16,720 people in Lanarkshire have now tested positive for Covid-19 and, as of Friday, November 13, 534 people in the region have died after testing positive.
