NHS Scotland will remain on an ‘emergency footing’ until at least the end of March next year.
Health secretary Jeane Freeman explained that the NHS had adopted this status when coronavirus hit the country in March.
Health boards across Scotland are now working to reintroduce services that had to be halted at the height of the pandemic.
But Freeman has said that the NHS would remain on an ‘emergency footing’ until at least next year.
She said: "I am mindful of the challenges that winter is likely to bring over the coming months, including seasonal flu and bad weather.
"I want to ensure that our health and care services are fully supported across winter, so NHS Scotland will remain on an emergency footing until at least March 31 2021, at which point I will review the situation again."
Freeman, who gave the update in response to a written parliamentary question at Holyrood, said the health and care services continued to "respond magnificently to the enormous challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic".
And while she said the NHS had now begun "safely and incrementally resuming some services", the Health Secretary added that "the reality is coronavirus is likely to be with us for some time to come".
She said the health boards would "continue to work on safely resuming services whilst protecting Covid-19 capacity".
But Labour's health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said a plan to "kickstart" the NHS must be put in place sooner rather than later.
Lennon said: "With thousands of Scots waiting for key tests and languishing for months without treatment it is vital a plan to fully kickstart and support our NHS is implemented sooner rather than later.
"It is right that the NHS will be primed to respond to any sudden spikes of Covid-19, but other health conditions like cancer need to be given equal priority and doing so means we need to see a rapid expansion of PPE and mass testing which has been recommended by experts for months."
