Nicola Sturgeon has warned Scotland is “in this for the long haul” as she announced a further 74 recorded deaths from coronavirus.
The first minister said 4,229 people had tested positive for Covid-19, a rise of 268 from official Scottish Government figures released on Monday.
Some 1,751 patients are currently in hospital with confirmed or suspected cases of the virus, 199 of whom are in intensive care.
The number of deaths across Scotland has now reached 296 and it is feared the figure could increase significantly as a new method of recording fatalities involving coronavirus comes into full effect this week.
Ms Sturgeon said the number of deaths recorded in the previous 24 hours was also “relatively large” because the National Records of Scotland has moved to listing deaths seven days a week, having previously recorded just four deaths over the weekend.
She expressed her “deepest condolences” to those who had lost loved ones and said she was “acutely aware” each death is “much more than a statistic, it represents an individual human being”.
The first minister said health experts do not yet have a clear picture of how social distancing measures will affect current modelling of the spread of the virus but appealed to the public to continue following the guidance.
She stressed current restrictions “are not about to be lifted next week” and suggested measures could be scaled back in a “phased approach” rather than all at once.
“We aren’t yet in a position to know exactly what the impact of the current measures have been, what impact that has had on the spread of the virus,” Ms Sturgeon said.
“Hopefully, that certainty will grow over the next few days.
“I’ve always said that if more restrictive measures are required in the interests of beating the virus, we will have to contemplate that but I am not standing here with any secret plans to do that.”
She added: “I hope over a period of weeks, perhaps with some of this it will be months, that we see a process become possible where we start to get back to normal but I’ve always been really clear not to give people false expectations about the timescale of that.
“In order to get on top of this virus and stay on top of this virus, some of these measures at least are likely to be in place for a considerable period of time.”
The first minister confirmed a new system of recording coronavirus deaths, which was announced last week, will result in more detail being available on fatalities linked to the illness from Wednesday.
She said: “We are doing a range of different things to understand the spread of this virus. The numbers I give here are part of that but they are not the totality.
“Particularly on deaths, we have always been very clear to say these are deaths of people who had a laboratory confirmed case of the virus.
“From [Wednesday], we will give a much more comprehensive overview of the numbers who have sadly died from Covid where that’s not just confirmed but presumed, so where a doctor has put a reference to it on the death certificate.”
