A number of businesses across Scotland have now been closed for almost a week under new lockdown restrictions.
Scots have been urged to stay at home as concerns over a more-transmissible strain of the virus continues to grow.
Non-essential businesses have been forced to shut up shop and people have been urged to work from home where possible.
Sites such as construction and manufacturing, can remain open if working from home is not possible - but there are limits on the number of people allowed to work together.
This means that a number of employees will be out of work in a way similar to that of the first national lockdown imposed in March last year.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced details of the UK Government's Job Retention Scheme at that time, which has been designed to protect millions of UK workers from losing their jobs during the lockdown.
The furlough scheme means that employees will be paid for 80% of their normal salary - up to a maximum of £2,500 a month - for the hours they have not worked.
Workers on pretty much all kinds of contracts, such as temporary, zero hour and agency workers, can be furloughed.
But an employer will only be able to use the scheme to pay your wages if you were employed and paid on or before October 30, 2020.
An end date for the initiative has changed on a number of occasions, which reflects on different ways that the coronavirus has behaved in recent months.
Currently, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will end on April 30, 2021 - but this may change depending on the progress made in the fight against the virus.
The Scottish Government has hinted that tougher measures could be on the way as new cases of the virus continue to spike.
Speaking on BBC’s Politics Scotland yesterday, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “The virus doesn’t show much sign of abating to any extent.
“We’re seeing case numbers which are hovering around 2,000 per day… so we’ve got an accelerating situation on our hands and we have to constantly review whether more restrictions are required.”
