A further 69 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the north and north-east in the past 24 hours, according to the latest Scottish Government statistics.
A total of 806 people have tested positive for Covid-19 across Scotland during the same time period, the highest single day total since the pandemic began.
However, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has suggested the figures may be down to a weekend backlog in testing.
The latest update from the Scottish Government shows the number of positive cases since the outbreak began has risen to 28,604 since Monday.
The new cases represent 11.5% of newly tested individuals.
A total of 123 people are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 and 14 of those are receiving treatment in intensive care.
No coronavirus-linked deaths have been registered in the past 24 hours.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 770,729 people in Scotland have been tested. Of these people, 742,125 were confirmed negative.
Coronavirus in Scotland – track the spread in these charts and maps
A regional breakdown of the data shows there have been 54 new cases in Grampian since Monday. The north-east’s total is now 2,275.
The total of positive cases in the Highlands has risen to 645 after 12 new cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours.
There have been two new cases in the Western Isles, taking the islands’ total to 28, and one in Orkney, which has had 23 in total.
There are no new cases in Shetland, leaving its cumulative total on 60.
Around a third of the new Scottish cases in the past 24 hours were among the over-40s, the first minister revealed during her briefing today.
The majority remain among the under-25s amid outbreaks at university accommodation.
Ms Sturgeon told the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing: “The majority, the quite significant majority, are in the under-40 age groups, with the bulk of those in the under-25 age group.”
She warned this must not give rise to complacency as young people can become seriously unwell from the virus and while the risk of dying is lower for these ages, it is not “non-existent”.
The first minister said: “While we are seeing a significant number of cases in younger age groups, which is a phenomenon that we’ve seen across Europe in this latest surge of Covid, it is the case that transmission amongst older ages groups is also rising and let’s not pretend that that is not the case.
“Around a third of today’s cases are actually in the over-40 age group and there are a number in the over-60 age group, so transmission is rising across the spectrum of age ranges.”