45 new coronavirus cases confirmed in Lothians as Scotland death toll rises to 126

New figures have revealed 45 new confirmed case of people with coronavirus in the NHS Lothian area, as the death toll of people with the virus in Scotland increased to 126.

First Minister stressed during a press conference on Thursday afternoon that 10 of those deaths came in the last 24 hours and 40 deaths had not been previously been notified due to delays with family liason.

The Scottish government said 2,602 people had now tested positive for the virus, up from 2,310 on Wednesday.

The First Minister also said testing for the virus had been "very rapidly expanded", with a focus on testing key workers including healthcare staff and their families.

Nicola Sturgeon spoke at a briefing today.

She said the government initially had capacity to test around 390 samples a day, but that figure has risen to 1,900 tests a day - with the aim of carrying out 3,500 a day by the end of April at the latest.

Ms Sturgeon said that, so far, the Scottish Government has tested a total of 3,400 NHS workers or family members who have shown symptoms.

She also said that there will be changes to the reporting system, with daily figures as of next week to include deaths presumed to be caused by coronavirus as well as those confirmed to be.

The latest COVID-19 figures were published by the Scottish Government at 2pm on Thursday.

A total of 356 patients have now tested positive for coronavirus in NHS Lothian, an increase of 45 cases since yesterday.

As of 5pm on Wednesday, a further 569 patients died with coronavirus in UK hospitals, bringing the total in the UK to 2,921.