The NHS is set to experience its most difficult period in its 73-year-old history, Humza Yousaf has said.
Scotland's Health Secretary said there was " noway of sugarcoating" the pressure the NHS will be under in the coming weeks due to the sharp rise in coronavirus cases.
16,103 positive tests were reported by the Scottish Government yesterday, making up 26.9% of all tests carried out.
1,223 people were also in hospital with covid - 71 more than the previous day and 544 more than at this time last week.
Speaking on Good Morning Scotland earlier today, Mr Yousaf said the continued rise of cases linked to the new Omicron variant would mean "these next few weeks will probably be amongst the most difficult our NHS has ever faced".
He said: "I don't think truthfully there's any way of sugarcoating the fact that these next few weeks will probably be amongst the most difficult our NHS has ever faced in its 73-year existence.
"We are facing pressures on a number of fronts.
"We have the pandemic backlog that has built up over the last 20 months, we have high levels of staff absences again much of that because of Omicron and its higher transmissibility.
"And then of course we also are treating a number of people, around 1200 people, in hospital with covid.
"So those pressures coming during the winter months, but of course we tend to see busier hospitals as pressure on our health service means that there's a perfect storm.
"So this is going to be an extremely challenging period."
Mr Yousaf also said the peak of the current wave of cases would likely happen in the next few weeks.
He continued: "Clinicians and public health experts look at the data every single day, as do we, and we are absolutely heading into that peak in the course of the next few weeks."
