The north and north-east have confirmed 177 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
Across Scotland, 1,341 people who recently tested positive for Covid-19 are in hospital, and 147 of them are in intensive care.
Today’s figures show NHS Grampian had the third-largest increase in case numbers among health boards, with 131 newly reported.
Currently, 124 people are in NHS Grampian hospitals with the virus, nine fewer since Saturday’s update.
Of those people, there are 11 in intensive care – one less than yesterday.
Hope Grampian is seeing a ‘levelling off’ in case numbers
Speaking on BBC’s Politics Scotland show, NHS Grampian’s head of health intelligence Jillian Evans said: “Looking at the hospital overnight and the number of patients coming in, particularly Covid patients, certainly seems to have been a little bit quieter this weekend than we have seen in previous days.
“So I’m hoping that, as with the case numbers we are seeing across Scotland, that we are seeing a little bit of a levelling off there and the effect of Christmas and New Year perhaps beginning to slow down.
“We expect very soon to see a reduction in the number of hospitalisations as a result of the vaccine programme.
“Admissions into hospital from Christmas and the New Year should tail off in the next week.
“So then the effect of lockdown will definitely have an impact as it has before and then, as we have heard from (NHS CEO) Simon Stevens the rate of vaccination, certainly in England, is four times faster than the number of people being infected – it is a race against the infection.
“But with a combination of things on the table at the moment, vaccination and tighter restrictions, we should begin to see a levelling off and then a gradual reduction in the numbers of cases, which of courses translates into hospitalisations.
“Against all of that is the unknown of new variants, but if we can continue to suppress the virus the risk of the new variant becomes slightly less too.”
Today’s update also showed there have been no new deaths registered of people who have tested positive for the virus.
Coronavirus in Scotland – track the spread in these charts and maps
There are 27 people with Covid in NHS Highland hospitals, with the health board area recording 43 new cases in the last 24 hours.
Seven of these patients are currently in the intensive care unit, which is no change from yesterday.
Shetland has reported three new cases, while Orkney has had none.
The Western Isles has not recorded any new positive tests since detailing the outbreak in Barra, an incident which is being monitored by NHS Western Isles closely after 110 close contacts have been told to self isolate.
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