WATCH: Arrests at anti-lockdown protest in Edinburgh

Officers lifted and carried a woman into the back of a police van during an anti-lockdown protest in Edinburgh on Monday afternoon.

She was among four people who were arrested and charged in connection with alleged breaches of coronavirus regulations at a planned demonstration at the Scottish Parliament today.

All are due to appear in Edinburgh Sheriff Court in due course.

One other person was charged with police obstruction and will be the subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal.

Two other people were given fixed penalty notices for breaching coronavirus regulations.

Dozens of demonstrators ignored police and city council warnings to stay away from the planned march from Holyrood to the First Minister’s official residence, Bute House.

Under current coronavirus regulations covering mainland Scotland people may not leave home for anything other than essential purposes, meaning marches and protests are banned.

Most of the COVID rule-breakers left the area after being threatened with fines, but a handful remained and attempted to proceed up the Royal Mile.

A heavy police presence many times bigger than the number of activists formed a long line to prevent the procession from getting under way.

The incident lasted no longer than an hour, with the last of the police personnel leaving the scene around 2pm.

Superintendent David Robertson from Edinburgh Police Division said: "The Scottish Government regulations are clear that no marches or parades are allowed due to the restrictions in place.

"Officers were on hand to engage with those who wanted to take part, explain the restrictions and used enforcement as a last resort where it was required."

Meanwhile, the chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith warned the number of coronavirus patients in Scotland’s hospitals could continue to rise from its record high.

He spoke out as the number of people in hospital with the virus reached 1,664 – an increase of 126 on the previous day’s total.

The number of patients recently surpassed the peak of admissions that was seen in the first wave of the pandemic

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told Scots the number of people needing hospital treatment was now "quite a bit above the peak of the first wave back in April."

Her comments came as Scotland’s top doctor warned this number was likely to increase further.

Speaking at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing, Dr Smith said: "In relation to the projection for hospitals admissions, what we have seen so far is hospital admissions that probably have their origin infections in the period immediately before Christmas.

"I expect we will still see some further rises in hospital admissions to come."

The number of intensive care patients, which currently stands at 126, has not reached the peak of the first wave, with Dr Smith explaining there are now better treatments available to medics than there were earlier in the pandemic.

While he said that was "beneficial", he added: "Make no mistake, those general wards and ICUs across Scotland right now are incredibly busy.

"We’ve got very tired staff who are providing care to this number of people and unfortunately I suspect that with the step change we saw just after Christmas, we have still got some rise in admissions still to come."

The number of new cases being reported increased after Christmas as the new, more rapidly spreading strain of COVID-19 took hold in Scotland.

As a result of that the Scottish Government placed all of mainland Scotland under Level 4 restrictions from Boxing Day, before tightening those up further with the lockdown measures announced last week.

And Dr Smith said he was hopeful the tougher restrictions were starting to have an impact.

He stated: "There is some encouraging news, I think when you look at the case rates we are seeing over the last few days, then we have perhaps begun – I am going to touch wood here – to slow down a little bit.

"The seven-day cumulative incidence across Scotland just now is not increasing at the rate I would have feared it might be at this stage, in fact there may even be some signs of containment with the Boxing Day measures really starting to have their effect coming into play just now."

The chief medical officer added: "We need to watch this very carefully but there are some encouraging signs within the system just now that the cases are not as high as they perhaps could have peaked at."