Nicola Sturgeon Scottish levels announcement in full: This is everything the First Minister said

Nicola Sturgeon revealed the latest decisions on lockdown tiers across Scotland today.

Here is Nicola Sturgeon’s speech on restrictions in full:

Presiding Officer,

I can confirm that, earlier today, the first vaccines against Covid were administered in Scotland.

This is a milestone we have all longed for. It offers hope, at long last, that we may now be at the beginning of the end of this pandemic.

I want to thank everyone involved, now and in the months ahead, in delivering what will be the biggest vaccination programme in our history.

Today we should all allow ourselves a smile. But we must not drop our guard. For now, the virus and the risks it poses to health and life, remain with us.

Indeed, we can expect the winter period ahead to be especially tough. As the vaccination programme rolls out across the country, the NHS will be coping with the impact of Covid and other winter pressures.

And we will also be dealing with any disruption caused by Brexit, the terms of which are still unclear. So we have no grounds at all for complacency about the months ahead – and we have every good reason, still, to do everything we can to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

The levels approach is of course one of the main ways in which the Scottish Government seeks to achieve that.

We have just completed our weekly review of the levels of protection for each local authority area, and I will shortly confirm the outcome of that review.

However I will start with a brief summary of the latest Covid statistics.

The total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 692. This represents 5.5% of all tests carried out, and takes the total number of cases to 101,475. 983 people are now in hospital – an increase of 9 from yesterday. 57 people are in intensive care, a decrease of 2 from yesterday. And I regret to say that in the last 24 hours, a further 33 deaths have been registered of patients who first tested positive over the previous 28 days. The total number of deaths, under this measure, is now 3,950. Those figures remind us once again of the toll this virus continues to take, right across Scotland. Once again, my deepest condolences go to all those who have lost a loved one.

Presiding Officer,