Nicola Sturgeon Covid update - six key points from announcement today

Nicola Sturgeon delivered another Covid update to the Scottish Parliament earlier today. During her speech, the First Minister outlined the latest 24 hour data on Covid while giving her assessment on the current Omicron situation in Scotland.She also updated MSPs on the number of confirmed cases of BA.2, which has been dubbed “stealth Omicron”, in Scotland.Here are six key points that Nicola Sturgeon raised during her speech this afternoon.Nicola Sturgeon announced that 6,630 new cases of Covid had been identified in Scotland over the past 24 hours.

A total of 950 people are in hospitals across Scotland with Covid, with the current number of people in intensive care standing at 31 - this figure includes 13 Scots have been in ICU for more than 28 days.

The First Minister also said that 18 new Covid deaths had been recorded in the same period of time.Case numbers in Scotland are said to “broadly stable” over the past week, with the number of infections declining by five per cent - from 7,400 on average a day last week to 7,000 a day this week.This drop in case numbers has come despite more Scots returning to the workplace from last Monday.The latest data released by the Office for National Statistics found that one in 30 Scots had Covid in the week ending January 29.Sturgeon also said that the number of people in hospital with Covid has dropped - with more than 1,500 in Scots wards in mid-January, to less than 1,000 today.

Intensive care numbers have also fallen from 70 reported at the beginning of last month, to 31 now.The number of deaths from people that have tested positive for Covid also appears to be on the decline.Did you know you can keep up to date with the latest news by signing up to our daily newsletter?We send