Coronavirus in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon says hospital admissions are 'quite a bit above the peak of the first wave'

The SNP leader made the announcement 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.

NHS Lanarkshire has officially breached its Covid-19 winter bed capacity. The last set of information from the health board revealed it has 306 patients for 303 beds.

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

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."

Commenting on news that NHS Lanarkshire has breached its COVID capacity, Scottish Labour health and social care spokesperson Monica Lennon said: “This is an extremely worrying development and yet more evidence of the urgent need for the Scottish Government to act rapidly.

“SNP ministers are failing to equip our NHS and patients, and staff are paying a heavy price. Further protective measures are needed to stop the spread of the virus and we need ministers to act decisively.

“The Health Secretary must urgently outline what she is doing to support patients in Lanarkshire and staff and how she will stop other health boards falling into crisis.”

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