John Swinney has said there is the potential for new covid restrictions to be introduced this winter.
New rules were introduced by the Scottish Government yesterday, with Nicola Sturgeon urging Scots to minimise social mixing with other households before and immediately after Christmas.
The First Minister suggested that people socialising - either at home or in indoor public places - limit the number of households represented in their group to a maximum of three.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney appeared on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland radio programme earlier today and said the current measures would be reviewed every three weeks.
Asked how long the new restrictions will be in place for, he said: "We've set up a three week review period, and we'll apply that.
"Obviously there is provision in place for ministers to report to parliament about any change in the approach that we intend to take.
"We're monitoring the data multiple times a day to determine whether there is a change in the pattern of Omicron."
Swinney was asked by host Gary Robertson if there is a change in the pattern would there be new measures.
He replied: "Potentially, that would be the case but we obviously want to avoid that.
"We hope that we've done enough in the announcements that were made yesterday.
"We hope that members of the public and businesses will work with us and in a cooperative spirit to make sure that we can take these provisions forward.
"We have a variant that is very powerful that is growing at an alarming rate and we face a very severe situation.
"What we're trying to do is to protect the period that people are looking forward to, to have as normal a Christmas as we possibly can do.
"We need people to work with us in a spirit of caution and to try to make sure we get through this and get through it safely."
