The first case of coronavirus caused by "community transmission" within Scotland has been revealed by the Scottish Government.
Earlier today it was reported that nine more people have tested positive for the bug across Scotland - bringing the total to 36.
Chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood also revealed that one of the cases is the first positive diagnosis that is ‘unrelated to contact or travel’.
She said: “We have identified the first case of community transmission in Scotland which is unrelated to contact or travel. This was identified through our enhanced surveillance scheme.
"It is important to emphasise that we are still in the containment phase. This case was to be expected and highlights the importance of the additional measures we have put in place to identify positive cases beyond self-identification.”
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has insisted that the authorities are ‘doing everything they can’ to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
She said: “We have active work going on looking at how we can increase the number of beds available in our hospital settings, doubling the number of intensive care units that we have and equipping them and staffing them.
“You start to make difficult decisions about NHS care that is critical to life - that would be cancer treatment, transplants, maternity care - from NHS care that is not critical to life. That is some of our elective work, the replacements of knees, hips and so on.
“You start to scale down the non-critical in order to free up the space for the critical.
“That is where you get additional bed space but you also can get additional intensive care space.”
The Scottish Government has warned that up to 80 per cent of the population could become infected, with as much as 4 per cent of those needing hospital treatment.
