A total of 885 new coronavirus cases have been identified in Scotland in the last 24 hours and 31 people have sadly lost their lives.
John Swinney made the announcement at today's live Coronavirus briefing where he confirmed that the cases registered within the last 24 hours represented 4.4 per cent of the tests carried out.
The Deputy First Minister spoke about the new data published by the National Records of Scotland which show that one in every 180 people now have Covid on average.
Mr Swinney said that this was the 'lowest rate of infection' from any other nation or anywhere else in the rest of the UK.
The breakdown for the new Covid cases was 267 in Glasgow, 166 in Lanarkshire, 163 in Lothian, and the rest were spread out across nine health boards.
There are now 1222 people in the hospital with coronavirus which is a decrease from yesterday, while 98 people remain in ICU with Covid.
As of today, there are now well over a million people who have received their first dose of the vaccination.
74 per cent of 65 to 69-year-olds have now received a vaccination which means Scotland is now on track to offer everyone in that age group their first jab by March.
