Nicola Sturgeon has issued a grave warning to Scots after the country saw its largest single-day jump in new coronavirus infections on record.
The Scottish Government announced on Saturday that there had been 714 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, with 558 new cases on Friday.
Responding to the worrying surge, the First Minister took to social media to urge Scots to follow the restrictions in place to suppress the virus and warned the country cannot be complacent.
Ms Sturgeon said: "This is our biggest daily tally of cases so far. Important therefore to start with some caveats.
"We are doing much more testing now than in Spring. These figures are impacted by university clusters. And Test & Protect is working hard and well.
"However, we have absolutely no room for complacency - on the contrary. Cases are rising across Scotland, as in other countries.
"The number of people in hospital (99 today) has doubled in last couple of weeks. And we can only beat Covid back together - we must all play our part."
She added the people must "stick with it" and abide by the new rules around social gatherings, under which a maximum of six people can meet up from two households. However, meeting in homes is currently banned completely.
Students also have additional restrictions to follow this weekend after being told they are not allowed to socialise outside their households and are banned from heading to bars, pubs, restaurants and cafés.
Universities Scotland, the representative body for the country's higher education institutions, took the decision after a spate of COVID-19 outbreaks across universities.
However, it has emerged that police were called to Edinburgh University's Pollock Halls, which is home to over 1,900 students, to break up several student parties on Friday night.
