Number of patients in hospital with Covid hits record high for fourth day

The number of coronavirus patients in Scotland’s hospitals has reached a new record high as figures rose for the fourth day in a row.

Latest Scottish Government figures show there were 2,383 people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 on Monday, up 23 on the previous day.

There was a drop in the number of patients requiring intensive care which fell to 20, down one on the day before.

The number of hospital patients fell to 2,309 on Friday after increasing for several days, but has since continued to rise.

Scotland has recorded 39 coronavirus-linked deaths and 9,311 new cases in the past 24 hours, figures published on Tuesday showed.

It means the total number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus has risen to 11,359.

So far 4,353,178 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 4,092,407 have received their second dose, and 3,450,121 have received a third dose or booster.