A number of locations are likely to close due to the Omicron variant before Christmas, Scotland's national clinical director has said.
This came after Todholm Primary School in Paisley closed for a week on Monday due to a number of workers had to isolate.
Professor Jason Leitch said on Tuesday there would likely be more closures, and warned they would not necessarily be restricted to educational settings, according to PA reporters.
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"I'm expecting there to potentially be other location closures before Christmas," he told BBC Radio Scotland .
"That's random - it might be a school, might be a call centre, might be my office, might be yours.
"It depends where Omicron appears."
While Prof Leitch said the new variant remains sparse in Scotland and the Delta variant is still more concerning, the national clinical director described Omicron as an "unknown".
Scientists are continuing to research the new strain and it could still take a couple of weeks to see how it reacts to vaccines.
"We don't know if it gives you a worse disease or if it somehow evades the vaccine a little," he said.
"And therefore, health protection teams are being much more cautious with it."
He added that the new variant appears to be "somewhat more transmissible", but the severity of disease and impact of the vaccines are yet to be ascertained.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will be giving a covid update to Parliament this afternoon.
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