Nicola Sturgeon announced 806 new positive cases of coronavirus.

However, she said it reflects a lower number of positive cases reported yesterday and on Sunday.

Ms Sturgeon said some of the cases reported today were from samples taken on Friday and Saturday.

More than 300 new cases were reported in Greater Glasgow and Clyde (302), there were 180 in Lothian, 91 in Lanarkshire and 54 in Grampian. The remaining cases were across the other nine health board areas.

While Scotland was now seeing higher numbers of positive cases, similar to when the virus was at its height in April and May, Ms Sturgeon said the two periods are not the same.

She said: “We are doing more testing now than in the spring so comparisons now between daily figures are not valid.”

She said the rise in cases was mainly affecting younger people but not exclusively

The First Minister said the age range showed it was under 40 age groups, with the bulk of new cases in the under 25s.

She said: “That’s affected by the university cases.

“We know younger people are less likely to die but that mustn’t give rise to complacency because young people can become unwell and while risk of dying is lower it is not non-existent.

“While we are seeing a significant number of cases in younger age group it is the case transmission among older age group is rising."

Ms Sturgeon said around one third in the over 40 age group but added transmission was rising across the age groups.