First Minister warns about rising Covid-19 hospital admissions
Nicola Sturgeon has warned of rising numbers of people being taken to hospital with Covid-19.
The First Minister urged people across Scotland to stick to the regulations to help arrest the rise and prevent deaths.
Speaking at the Scottish Government's coronavirus briefing, she said 222 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 27,798.
This is 6.9% of newly-tested individuals, down from 9.1% the previous day.
Ms Sturgeon warned the rise in cases is lower than expected and is likely due to a "weekend effect'', but Public Health Scotland has been asked to check there are no other issues.
No new deaths of patients who first tested positive for the virus in the previous 28 days have been recorded, with this total remaining at 2,511.
There are 122 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, up by 17 in 24 hours. Of these patients, 16 were in intensive care, up by four.
The First Minister said: "I still occasionally hear that the rise in cases that we have seen in recent weeks is nothing to worry about because the number of people in hospital is not rising as steeply.''
She said coronavirus hospital patients are not increasing as sharply as earlier in the pandemic, but have risen markedly - up from 48 on September 15, less than two weeks ago.
On the same date, there were six intensive care cases.
"The number of people in hospital is rising and nobody should be under any illusion about that,'' Ms Sturgeon said.
"I don't say this to alarm or worry people unduly but I say it to, I hope, make everybody realise that we have to take this rise in cases seriously and do all of the things that are being asked of all of us to try and stem that rise and bring Covid back under control.
"Just as was the case earlier this year, not getting Covid back under control will result in lives being lost and none of us want to see that.''
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