There have been three deaths of people who tested positive for the coronavirus in the Highlands recorded over the past day, the latest Scottish Government statistics show.
One death of a person with Covid has also been reported in the city of Aberdeen.
However, there was good news for Scotland as a whole, as the percentage of new tests that came back positive was just 3.8% – the lowest it has been since October 18.
That figure is significantly below the 5% threshold used to determine whether the spread of the virus is out of control, and reflects a broader downward trend in the rate since the start of the year.
The number of patients being treated with coronavirus in NHS Grampian hospitals is 35 – less than half of the number just 12 days ago.
Of those people, five are being treated in intensive care, which is the same number as yesterday.
Coronavirus in Scotland – track the spread in these charts and maps
NHS Highland hospitals have seen a slight increase in the number of Covid patients in hospital, from 28 yesterday to 31 today, and there are also five people in intensive care there.
There are nine people in hospital with the coronavirus in the Western Isles, one more than yesterday.
NHS Highlands recorded 37 new cases of the virus in the past day, while NHS Grampian recorded 26.
There were four new cases in the Western Isles and one on Orkney.
Across Scotland, 685 new cases of coronavirus were identified, the third-lowest total since Christmas.
There were 1,261 people being treated in hospital with the virus – a fall of 56 from Wednesday – and 95 of them were in intensive care, which is four fewer than yesterday.
In the past 24 hours, there were also 57 deaths of people who had tested positive.
Turning to the vaccination programme, 34,892 people were given their first dose while 3,760 people got their second dose – the highest daily total so far.
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