Covid in Scotland: 39 more deaths registered as cases rise

The deaths of 39 people with Covid-19 were registered in Scotland on Friday, as another 1,596 people tested positive for the virus.

The figures show an increase on Thursday’s statistics when 31 deaths and 1,072 positive cases were recorded.

It comes as a ban on visitors from Denmark to Scotland comes into effect amid concerns about a new Covid strain which has spread from mink to humans.

And NHS Grampian reports an outbreak at a fish processing plant in Peterhead.

The latest statistics published by the Scottish government show:

• Of the 1,245 people in hospital on Friday who had recently tested positive for the virus, 106 were in intensive care – a slight increase on Thursday

• There were 29,644 new tests carried out for the virus, with 6.3% of them returning positive results