Scotland needs a circuit breaker to deal with the threat of Omicron and to limit the spread of the virus, according to a health expert.
Nicola Sturgeon recently announced new guidance to defer work Christmas parties this year and to limit the amount of indoor socialising throughout the festivities, as these events are the main cause of the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreading.
Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist from the Queen Mary University of London, said drastic measures need to be taken by governments over the new strain which was first identified in southern Africa at the end of last month, the Daily Record report.
Scotland and the rest of the nations across the United Kingdom have ramped up their booster vaccine programmes to deal with the threat Omicron poses.
The spread of the variant, which accounted for 36.5 per cent of all cases yesterday, has seen overall cases jump in Scotland.
Sturgeon also introduced new measures for the hospitality and retail industry, prompting a return to table service and trying to avoid crowds at bar areas, as well as enforcing businesses to collect track and trace details from all customers.
The fear amongst Scots on Tuesday was that the First Minister would introduce more harsher measures, but she remained adamant to deliver a brighter Christmas than last year.
However, Gurdasani believes governments need to go harder to stop the spread.
She said: "I think given the sheer scale of the crisis that actually even more scientists cannot imagine, I will be putting in a circuit breaker now.
"I know I'm going to be unpopular for saying this.
"I don't think it was inevitable before, but the fact is we've gone into an Omicron wave where 50,000 cases a day, no capacity in our healthcare system, and I'm seriously concerned that in the next few weeks, people who need life saving emergency care won't be able to get it by January.
"We really, really cannot afford to be in that situation.
"I think that's what we need to do and support the public through where people are going to be impacted financially."
Over the last 24-hour period in Scotland 265 new cases of Omicron were identified, there are 561 people who have returned a positive test for the new variant.
Gurdasani was asked by host Gary Robertson if a circuit breaker meant people staying at homes and businesses closing.
She replied: "Yes, I know I'm going to be attacked for saying this but I do think the nature of the crisis means that we need something like that now."
