Scotland records biggest EVER rise in coronavirus cases as 486 people test positive with country at 'tipping point'
SCOTLAND has recorded the biggest ever rise in coronavirus cases as 486 people have tested positive in the past 24 hours.
Nicola Sturgeon today said the country was at its "tipping point" as more measures have had to come in to slow the spread of the killer bug.
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The First Minister said it is highest single day rise since in Scotland since the beginning of the pandemic.
Scotland is carrying out about 10 times more tests every day than it was during the height of the pandemic in April, Ms Sturgeon said today.
However, the worrying figure is that today's new cases represents 7.8 per cent of people newly tested.
The First Minister said today: "The total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 486 – that is the highest number of positive cases we have ever recorded in a single day.
"It must be remembered that many more people are being tested now than was the case in the spring.
"Nevertheless, today's number represents 7.8% of people newly tested.
"That is obviously a real cause for concern, but it also underlines why we took very decisive and very tough action yesterday."
She said this morning she had to act to stop Covid-19 "running out of control" again.
She told Good Morning Britain: "If we take tough action now we might actually manage to be under these restrictions for a shorter period of time than we will end up being if we delay that action."
In Wales 389 new coronavirus cases were recorded and a further 220 cases were logged in Northern Ireland in the past 24 hours.
More people are being tested for the killer bug since beginning of lockdown as the government scrambled to scale up its testing capacity.
During the height of the pandemic on April 3, the Department of Health recorded 4,450 new cases – and one day after Health Secretary Matt Hancock pledged to carry out 100,000 daily tests by the end of April.
However, Professor Chris Whitty said that the expansion of the UK's testing capacity isn't what has led to the recent surge of cases.
On Monday, he said "in every age group we've seen an increase", adding this is not due to more testing, because of an increase in test positivity and results of the ONS study, which says around 70,000 people in the UK have Covid-19.
Coronavirus cases across the UK have increased sharply – with a further 4,926 people testing positive yesterday.
It was the highest rise in cases since May 7, forcing Boris Johnson to impose “significantly greater restrictions”.
He imposed a 10pm curfew for all pubs and hospitality venues from Thursday.
In England, people can still meet indoors as long as there are no more than six people within the household.
Yesterday, Scotland took the measures a step further and introduced a ban on households mixing indoors.
The Times reports that Professor Whitty agreed with the measures that are happening in Scotland at the moment.
It comes as Boris has reportedly told a ban on households mixing may be needed in England as well.
SAGE member John Edmunds blasted the Government's new measures for "not going far enough" and warns more "stringent" measures will have to be put in place across the whole of the UK in the coming months.
He said the R rate was able to be brought down during the national lockdown from 2.7 to around 0.7.
The R rate is now thought to be about 1.4 and Boris has said he wanted to get it below one again.
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