Coronavirus: Sturgeon issues warning as Scotland records highest daily tally

‘We have absolutely no room for complacency,’ first minister says

Scotland has recorded its highest daily coronavirus tally (PA)

Scotland has recorded a new single-day record for its daily number of coronavirus cases. 

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, urged people to stick to the country’s rules aimed at stopping the spread of the virus amid rising cases. 

A total of 714 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Scotland’s biggest daily figure yet.

The record came on the same day Northern Ireland reported its largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases, with the country’s health ministry reporting 319 new cases in the last 24 hours.

A ban on households mixing indoors was extended across Northern Ireland earlier this week.

In Scotland, more than 27,200 people have received a positive Covid-19 result in total, after the Scottish government updated the national tally on Saturday. 

No new deaths were reported, meaning the death toll remained at 2,511. 

“This is our biggest daily tally of cases so far,” Ms Sturgeon tweeted.

She said the country was doing more testing for the virus than it did in spring, and the new figures were “impacted by university clusters”. 

Hundreds of students are self-isolating after outbreaks of the virus at Glasgow, Edinburgh Napier and other universities.

All students have been told to avoid pubs this weekend in a bid to stop the virus from spreading, and have been warned they cannot return to their family home under new rules banning household mixing. 

Ms Sturgeon said there was “absolutely no room for complacency” on Saturday following the new figures, and urged the public to follow Scotland’s Covid-19 rules - including not going to other people’s houses.