52 more Coronavirus cases in Scotland

Confirmed coronavirus cases in Scotland have risen by 52 in a day, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

Speaking at the Scottish Government's coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, the First Minister said less than half of the new cases, 27, are in the NHS Grampian area, which covers the Aberdeen outbreak.

She said it is not yet clear how many of these new cases are linked to this outbreak but indications are the rate of increase is slowing.

The Aberdeen City Council area was placed into local lockdown last Wednesday, with shops, restaurants and bars ordered to close, residents banned from having visitors to their homes and a five-mile travel limit in place.

The lockdown measures are due to be reviewed this Wednesday.

Ms Sturgeon said there have been 253 coronavirus cases in Aberdeen since the outbreak began on July 26.

More than half of these, 165, are associated with the outbreak linked to Aberdeen pubs.

The First Minister said: The rate of increase appears at this stage to be slowing down but of course we remain very vigilant.''

She praised the work of the contact tracing teams who have identified 875 contacts, adding: It is clear we are likely to identify new cases and new contacts for at least the next few days.''

The rise in overall daily coronavirus cases is up from the 29 confirmed on Monday and takes the total number of people in Scotland who have tested positive for the virus to 19,079.

The First Minister said no deaths have been recorded of patients who tested positive for coronavirus in the previous 28 days.

There have been no deaths under this measure for 26 consecutive days, with this total remaining at 2,491.

Of the people who tested positive, 269 are in hospital - up two from the previous day. Of these, three are in intensive care, no change.