Scotland hits grim milestone as Covid kills 6,000

More than 6,000 people in Scotland have now died from coronavirus.

At the Scottish Government’s daily Covid briefing yesterday, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman announced the country’s death toll under the daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 6,040.

That came after a further 70 deaths were registered in the last 24 hours.

Case numbers also continue to rise, with 1,155 positive tests in the past day.

Later in the day, it was announced the Western Isles are being placed in the toughest tier of coronavirus restrictions after a spike in cases.

Ms Freeman had revealed at the briefing six new cases were reported there yesterday and nine on Thursday. A separate outbreak on Barra recently pushed that island into Level 4.

As a result of the spikes, the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway has now reached capacity.

Ms Freeman said: “When the situation demands it, we must act quickly and decisively to safeguard health, save lives and protect the NHS.

“As we said we would, we have kept the island areas under review.

“The advice of our clinical advisers is that due to a rising trend of infections, lockdown is now necessary in the Western Isles.

“Discussions are under way to offer support and ease the pressure on local health services.

“It is essential that we further limit interaction between different households to stem the spread and bring the situation back under control, while we vaccinate more people.”