Updating Holyrood on the Covid-19 crisis in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has said there will be no immediate change to lockdown rules.
The First Minister said the government was waiting for a decision by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on the vaccination of children over 12.
She said if the UK vaccine body approves vaccination for these children then Scotland would move quickly to implement this.
Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon said there had been a 50% rise in cases in the last week, adding that the delta variant now accounted for the majority of Scottish coronavirus cases.
Speaking in Parliament, Ms Sturgeon said: “However, although cases are rising, the key question is the extent to which vaccination is weakening the link between the increase in new cases, and an increase in serious health harms.
Vaccine protection
“We continue to assess the data on this very closely – and, at this stage, we remain optimistic that vaccination will allow us to move progressively to a less restrictive way of dealing with the virus.
“We have evidence that two doses of the vaccine does give protection against serious illness, even with the new Delta variant.”
The first minister also said the vaccine was reducing the number of people who need hospital care for the virus.
“At the start of the year, around 10% of new Covid cases were admitted to hospital. Over the course of May, that was 5%.
“However, it is important that we continue to monitor the data so that the full impact of the Delta variant can be assessed,” she added.
The next lockdown review will be due on June 21, with any changes to take affect from June 28.
Covid-19 cases in Tayside and Fife
New Public Health Scotland figures were also released showing the latest coronavirus infections across Fife, Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross.
Dundee City is the second most infected local authority in Scotland based on the number of cases per 100,000 people.
Data in the seven days leading up to June 5 showed the city had a case rate of 200.2 per 100,000 with 299 new cases.
Meanwhile, Kirriemuir has an case rate of over 1,000 per 100,000 people, making it the local area with the most cases throughout the country.
Fife saw 186 new infections with a seven-day case rate of 49.8. 135 cases were found in Perth and Kinross in the week leading up to June 5.
181 cases were reported in Angus, where health authorities are battling an outbreak in Kirriemuir. 63 new cases were reported in Kirriemuir.
Asked about the situation in Tayside, Nicola Sturgeon said an incident management team was currently dealing with cases in the region.
She did not suggest any suggested change to lockdown level as a result of cases there.
Across Scotland, another 695 new cases were reported, up from 641 on Monday, with 5% of tests reporting a positive result.
Test positivity rate is one of the measures set out by the World Health Organisation for measuring whether a country’s pandemic is under control.
The new data confirmed 121 people were in hospital with the virus, whilst 12 are receiving treatment in an intensive care unit.
No deaths were reported, with the Scottish death toll standing at 7,677 amongst people who tested positive.
‘Fragile position’
Nicola Sturgeon ended her update by stressing the need to follow advice and guidelines.
She said: “Our position is still fragile. Case numbers are higher than we would like. The virus does still cause serious health harms. And it still has the potential to put pressure on our health service.
“That is why we must continue to assess the data very carefully, as we make decisions about whether and when to ease restrictions further.”