Nicola Sturgeon says further restrictions for Scotland will be confirmed in the coming days.
The First Minister confirmed that these measures will aim to keep the virus under control both "now and in the longer term". She told the Scottish Parliament today (Thursday) that the restrictions will include tougher travel rules and improvements to the test and protect system.
The Scottish Government announced there had been 82 new Covid-19 deaths and 1201 cases throughout the country in the last 24-hours. 1938 patients are being cared for in hospitals with 142 people in intensive care.
Sturgeon confirmed that case numbers have decreased in recent days and weeks, and the R-number is now below one.
However she warned that numbers are still far too high, with pressure on the NHS still critical.
She said: "Case numbers do remain very high and the NHS remains under severe pressure. The number of people in hospital with Covid is still approximately 30 per cent higher than at the peak last Spring, although we are starting to see a welcome stabilisation in these figures as we see from the numbers I've reported today.
"It's therefore vital cases continue to fall which is why we've confirmed that lockdown restrictions will continue until at least the middle of February.
"As everyone is aware we are also considering and implementing further measures to help keep the virus under control both now and in the longer term. They include tougher travel restrictions and we will set out more proposals on that in the coming days, and of course further ongoing improvements to our test and protect sysyem."
Sturgeon said on Wednesday that Scotland may get tougher travel rules than the rest of the UK as she fears supervised quarantine measures set out by the UK Government don't go far enough.
She said: "I think I do have a duty at this point to say I am concerned that the proposal does not go far enough. I've made that point very strongly in the four-nations discussions that we've just had today.
"So while the Scottish Government will initially emulate the UK Government's steps on enhanced quarantine arrangements, we will be seeking urgently to persuade them to go much further, and to move to a comprehensive system of supervised quarantine.
"Given the obvious practical issues involved we are very clear that our preference is to have consistent quarantine rules across the UK, but if there is no agreement to go further on a four-nations basis we will be considering going further ourselves.
"We will set out any such additional measures next week."
