The first minister will hold a Covid briefing today after case numbers hit a record high yesterday.
Nicola Sturgeon will be joined by national clinical director Jason Leitch for the 12.15pm update.
At a briefing earlier this week, Ms Sturgeon said she was hopeful that further restrictions would still be lifted on July 19 but stressed it was a “critical moment” and urged people to “keep the heid”.
But a high of 4,234 cases were recorded yesterday – just three days after passing the 3,000 mark for the first time.
Coinciding with that, more coronavirus tests were carried out more than any other day since the beginning of the pandemic. A total of 42,843 were recorded over a 24-hour period.
Stonehaven has been badly hit by cases this week, with around a dozen businesses – including Stonehaven Open Air Swimming Pool – shut as a result.
The Stonehaven area is currently recording some of the highest rates of cases in Aberdeenshire, with 54 confirmed between June 22 and 28.
NHS Grampian is urging people to take regular flow tests at home to tackle the “rapid rise” in cases – which can be picked up from pharmacies or ordering online – or to make use of the mobile testing units in place across the region.
Aberdeenshire Council is also rolling out more mobile units from next week to ensure that people in further-out communities do not have to travel too far. Places including Laurencekirk, Mintlaw, Westhill, Fraserburgh and Turriff are on the list, but the full timetable is available on the council’s website.
Rise in cases ‘very clearly’ linked to football trips
Earlier today, public health expert Martin McKee said the surge in cases around the country was linked to Scotland fans travelling to London for the Euro 2020 match against England.
Professor McKee, of the European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the spike “coincides very much” with the incubation period of the virus after the match at Wembley on Friday June 18, which finished 0-0.
He was asked if the Euros tournament was “acting as some kind of super-spreader with the number of fans that have been travelling around the continent”.
Prof McKee told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think you in Scotland know very clearly that that is the case.
“We also have another example of Finnish fans who went to one of the Euros matches and 300 of them were infected.
“We can see very clearly in the Scottish data, because the increase coincides very much with what you would expect with the incubation period after the match but also the gender difference, because the cases, the increases seem much greater in men than in women.
“So I think when you put those two together it’s pretty clear that’s what’s been happening.”
Today’s briefing at 12.15pm will be shown on BBC Scotland and the Scottish Government’s Twitter page. We’ll also be sharing all the latest updates on our live blog.
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