The NHS will remain on an emergency footing until the end of March 2022 despite a drop in covid cases.
Scotland's health secretary Humza Yousaf confirmed the Scottish Government's move to keep the health service under emergency footing until March 31 next year.
The NHS was placed under these measures across the UK in March 2020 as the service faced significant pressure due to the sharp rise in covid cases.
It comes despite declining virus case numbers, with Mr Yousaf said the move was intended to protect the health service "as we move into a challenging winter period".
SNP MSP Emma Harper submitted the following questions: "To ask the Scottish Government whether the NHS will continue on the emergency footing that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care previously extended to 30 September 2021."
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Mr Yousaf response read: "Once again, I want to thank our health and care staff for their magnificent work to date. Whilst we are beginning to see a reduction in the numbers of new Covid cases, the last few weeks have been enormously difficult and our health and care services are continuing to deal with a challenging combination of issues.
"With the continued increased demands on services across health and social care, we must ensure that the vital services provided by our NHS are protected as we move into a challenging winter period. This means we must continue with a measured and consistent approach to remobilising and renewing across our system, learning from the pressures we were subjected to over the last year and maintaining the ability to quickly respond and intervene, where necessary. I am also mindful of the impact of these pressures on our excellent health and care staff, many of whom have been on the frontline of the Covid response for a considerable period.
"It is clear that as we move into the winter period, we need to continue to balance the capacity of the NHS to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic against increasing demands of emergency, urgent and planned care and delayed discharges.
"With this in mind, I have decided that the NHS will remain on an emergency footing until at least 31 March 2022."
The latest covid statistics confirmed 2,370 positive cases were recorded yesterday – 10.6% of all tests carried out.
1,027 people are in hospital with the virus, while 73 are in intensive care.
Sadly, 16 more deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours, which takes the overall death toll to 8,551.
