Nicola Sturgeon has disclosed another 16 people have died in Scotland from Covid-19, taking the total number of fatalities up to 76, with more than 1,500 people in hospital with virus symptoms or confirmed infections.
In her daily virus update, the first minister said there had now been 2,310 positive cases detected, up by 317 in the last 24 hours, but Scotland’s hospitals had dramatically expanded capacity to cope with the pandemic.
She said the number of intensive care beds had now doubled, with 360 ICU beds in total and 250 available specifically for Covid-19 patients. Last night, 147 people with the virus were in intensive care. Hospitals were now working to quadruple intensive care capacity.
She told MSPs they were confident the NHS could cope with an expected peak in cases, as long as people continued to observe the very strict lockdown and social distancing rules now in place.
