Edinburgh has been revealed as Scotland’s covid Capital after recording more than 600 new cases of the disease in the latest 24-hour period.
Figures from Public Health Scotland show more than a fifth of the 5,155 recently registered infections occurred within the NHS Lothian health board area as the country wrestles with the Omicron variant.
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However, 650 of the 1,145 cases confirmed across the Lothians were discovered in Edinburgh - putting the city ahead of Glasgow and South Lanarkshire at the top of the league table.
A further 22 people have tragically passed away as a result of the disease, the data confirmed.
It comes just a day after the First Minister introduced a raft of new measures aimed at combating the spread of the highly-transmissible new strain.
During a meeting at the Scottish Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon urged Scots to limit the number of household contacts to just three this Christmas - but stopped short of 'cancelling' the festive period.
New guidance for hospitality and retail settings has also been issued in a bid to halt the virus in its tracks.
However, deputy FM John Swinney refused to rule out the potential for further restrictions to be put in place in the lead up to Christmas Day.
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 - now stands at 9,746.
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The daily test positivity rate was 9.1%, down from 11.3% the previous day.
There were 544 people in hospital on Tuesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up three on the day before, with 38 in intensive care, no change.
So far 4,364,802 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 3,981,180 have received their second dose, and 2,254,406 have received a third dose or booster.
