Nicola Sturgeon has announced the new strain of Omicron is now the dominant one in Scotland.
The First Minister delivered a statement to MSPs in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon about the currently covid situation across the country.
According to the SNP leader the "BA.2 sub lineage" of Omicron now accounts for over 80 per cent of all cases in Scotland.
The so-called 'Stealth Omicron' variant is believed to be significantly more transmissible but Sturgeon revealed it did not cause "more severe illness".
She told MSPs: "The increase in cases over the past three weeks has been driven by the BA.2 sub lineage of the Omicron variant, which is estimated to be significantly more transmissible - with a growth rate since mid-February perhaps 80 per cent greater than original Omicron.
"BA.2 is now our dominant strain, accounting for more than 80 per cent of all reported cases.
"BA.2 has become dominant in Scotland earlier than in England and Wales, hence the more rapid increase in cases here than south of the border in recent weeks - although cases and hospital admissions are now rising sharply again in England too.
"Encouragingly, there is no evidence that BA.2 causes more severe illness than BA.1, or that it is more effective at evading natural or vaccine immunity.
"In other words, even though weight of numbers of infections is putting significant pressure on hospital capacity - a real concern - we continue to observe strong evidence that the link between infection and serious health harm has weakened considerably.
"However, this is due to immune protection, not least from vaccines, more than it is to Omicron being inherently milder.
"That is borne out by current experience in Hong Kong, where relatively low rates of vaccination, particularly in the older population, mean that Omicron is causing very significant levels of severe illness and death.
"This underlines the vital importance of vaccination."
It comes as cases of the virus have shot up in recent weeks which led the First Minister delaying a decision to scrap face masks in shops, hospitality venues and on public transport.
Coverings were due to be axed on March 21, however due to rising cases a decision will be made in two weeks.
Latest covid numbers
Scotland has recorded 25 coronavirus-linked deaths in the past 24 hours, according to latest data.
The figures also show that 38,770 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported since Saturday March 12.
Due to a technical issue, Public Health Scotland (PHS) had not been able to provide the latest data on cases, deaths and vaccinations in the Monday update.
There were 1,996 people in hospital on Monday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 191 on the previous day, with 33 in intensive care, up six.
So far, 4,441,175 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 4,171,128 have received their second dose, and 3,468,504 have received a third dose or booster, according to Scottish Government data published on Tuesday.
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