Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that the more communicable variant found in India led to the ‘bump in the road’ which has seen an increase in cases in Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and Clackmannanshire, and a slight increase in hospitalizations.

In a coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, the Scottish Prime Minister said three more people had been admitted to hospital with confirmed Covid-19 overnight, bringing the total to 96, and the number of intensive care patients was up from one to 6.

There had also been two deaths of Covid patients in the past 24 hours. These are the first reported deaths in Scotland since May 14, bringing the total number of deaths in Scotland involving confirmed cases to 7,666.

Sturgeon said that data was much lower than at the peak of the pandemic, when more than 2,000 people were hospitalized, but said it underscored the case for caution and continued checks. The test positivity rate was also up slightly, from a seven-day rate of 1.8% to 2% overnight. Much of this was due to the Indian variant, called the April 02 variant in Scotland.

She said the mass vaccination program would allow ministers and health chiefs to roll out a much less aggressive lockdown regime in the near future: according to evidence from population tracking in the UK, they were hoping the vaccinations would drastically reduce the number of people infected. hospital and dying.

She said 3.14 million people in Scotland had now had their first doses, and nearly 1.9 million had had both.

Sturgeon added that the latest data from East Renfrewshire, where cases had increased last week, had leveled off. Its seven-day case rate through May 21 was 113.1 per 100,000 people. In Glasgow, the only Scottish council area remaining in Level 3, the second highest level, there were early signs that the ongoing outbreak was slowing down. His seven-day rate was 136.8. Hospitalization figures in Greater Glasgow and Clyde remained stable over the weekend.

Dr Gregor Smith, Scotland’s chief medical officer, said a sharp rise in case rates in Clackmannanshire, which had Scotland’s highest per capita rate of 139.7 last week, was due to a few clusters communities among young adults.

Because Clackmannanshire has a small population, health officials were not alarmed; there was little evidence of wider community transmission. The daily reported cases were less than 10 there, he said.