Five Scots have died from coronavirus in the last 24 hours.
The Scottish Government also announced a further 827 positive cases have been detected overnight, bringing the total to 197,469.
The Scottish death toll now stands at 6,950 since the start of the pandemic last March.
9,053 deaths have been registered in Scotland where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
A total of 1,132 patients are currently being treated in hospital for the deadly virus with 99 in intensive care.
It comes as a nurse has accused the Scottish Government of “spitting” on her profession by paying dental hygienists, optometrists and doctors five times more for giving vaccinations.
Jane McCallum has criticised a deal struck by ministers in November which allows NHS boards to give contractors £230 per three-and-a-half-hour shift – the equivalent of £66 per hour – at inoculation centres.
General practice nurses, meanwhile, are receiving as little as £13 an hour to do exactly the same job while often having to train the rookie vaccinators.
Jane, 64, an experienced practice and travel health nurse who is vaccinating people at Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University Hospital, said: “This discrepancy in pay for getting everyone vaccinated is an insult to the nursing profession.
