Nicola Sturgeon has announced new recommendations for care homes and hospitals in Scotland amid fears over the Omicron variant.
The First Minister revealed the changes to MSPs in the Scottish Parliament earlier this afternoon.
It comes as the first people with Omicron in Scotland have been admitted to hospitals.
The SNP leader said the new strain was "increasing exponentially - faster than any variant that has gone before it".
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament about Covid -19, Sturgeon said two people who are known to be infected with the variant have now been admitted to hospital.
She told MSPs: "We expect it to become the dominant strain within days.
"This matters because Omicron is significantly more transmissible than Delta; the R number associated with Delta is around 1 but the R number for Omicron appears to be well over 2 and possibly above 4.
On care home and hospital visiting the First Minister said: "We will continue to consider appropriate protective measures for people in institutional settings – such as care homes – while ensuring that visits can continue.
"Last week we recommended that care staff take lateral flow tests on a daily basis.
"We are also now recommending that individual visits in care homes should not involve any more than 2 households visiting any patient at a time. And we are asking anyone visiting a care home to test before every visit.
"For hospitals, we are recommending that no more than 2 people visit a patient at any one time. And again, we are recommending a lateral flow test before each visit."
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