Nine more covid-related deaths have been recorded in Scotland, the government has confirmed, as they advised of a further 1,386 positive cases, an increase of 136 on Friday's figures.
Meanwhile, 41 people are currently in ICU with coronavirus at latest count, a decrease of 13 on the previous 24 hours, with a fall of eight in terms of the number of people in hospital.
The latest update comes shortly after Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland is in a "much better position" with Covid than could have been expected at the start of summer.
The First Minister tweeted encouragement for Scots to "continue to take sensible precautions" despite many of the legal coronavirus rules being lifted from Monday.
Quoting a column in the Herald looking at whether the pandemic was over, Ms Sturgeon suggested the situation facing the country was more promising than she had expected.
The number of new coronavirus infections reached a peak of 4,234 on July 1 but the average number of daily cases so far during August is now 1,125, according to the Scottish Government statistics.
Friday's figures showed Scotland recorded seven coronavirus deaths and 1,250 new cases in the past 24 hours.
It brings the death toll under the daily measure, of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days, to 7,983.
A total of 3,286,153 Scots have now been fully vaccinated while 4,020,712 have received at least one dose.
In her tweet, Ms Sturgeon wrote: "The pandemic is not over (as this piece rightly concludes) but we are in a much better position that (sic) we might have believed possible at the start of the summer - and if we all continue to take sensible precautions, even as legal restrictions end, we can hopefully maintain that."
Meanwhile, vaccinations for those aged 16 and 17 will begin this weekend, Scotland's Health Secretary has announced.
Earlier this week the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that the vaccine rollout should be extended to anyone aged 16 or over.
Appointments can be booked at some vaccination clinics this weekend or they can visit a drop-in centre if staff have been trained and appropriate information is available at the location.
A full rollout of the vaccination programme for 16 and 17-year-olds will be in place across Scotland from Tuesday.
The Scottish Government advised this afternoon:
- 1,386 new cases of COVID-19 reported
- 24,025 new tests for COVID-19 that reported results
- 6.3% of these were positive
- 9 new reported death(s) of people who have tested positive
- 41 people were in intensive care yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19
- 359 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19
- 4,022,914 people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccination and 3,305,325 have received their second dose
To see the latest coronavirus statistics in full, you can visit the Scottish Government website here.
