Nicola Sturgeon daily briefing RECAP: 267 positive Covid-19 cases in Scotland in past 24 hours

Nicola Sturgeon also said there have been reports of some fake callers pretending to work for Test and Protect, to try and con people by claiming payment is needed for a test.

She stressed that Covid-19 tests are free and said genuine Test and Protect staff will never ask people for financial information such as bank or credit card details and will only ask about people’s movement and who they have been in contact with.

The First Minister said: “Sadly there are always a small number of people, and it’s a tiny minority, who will try to exploit any situation they can to defraud people and it’s truly and utterly despicable particularly at this time of crisis.”

Nicola Sturgeon asks everyone to download the Protect Scotland app, adding that the last time she looked, 950,000 had done so.

Nicola Sturgeon reiterates the public must follow the five "golden rules" in FACTS: Face coverings in enclosed spaces; Avoid crowded places; Clean hands and surfaces regularly; Two metre distancing; and; Self-isolate and book a test if you have symptoms

Nicola Sturgeon said that restrictions on meeting in indoor household settings in parts of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which last night were extended for another week, appear to be having an effect.

She said: “The good news is that the early indications suggest that the restrictions in place in Glasgow City, East and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire might be helping to slow down the increase in new cases so that at this stage is positive but the number of new cases in these parts of Greater Glasgow and Clyde still remains high and is still increasing albeit we think at a slower rate than would have been the case without these restrictions being in place.”

The Scottish Government announced on Monday evening that the restrictions on meeting in indoor household settings will remain in place for another week and will then be reviewed again.

The restrictions also apply in North and South Lanarkshire.

On the subject of fake callers, claiming to work for Test and Protect, Ms Sturgeon says: "It is truly and utterly despicable, particularly at this time of crisis that we are living through.

"Covid tests are free and will always be free for people that need them.

"Nobody from Test and Protect will ever ask you for financial information.

"They will never ask you for your bank or credit card details and they will never try to sell you anything.

"The only thing Test and Protect staff will ask you about is where you have been and details of the people you have been in contact with."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she has spoken to UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock about the backlog in testing processing in recent days and hopes to see an improvement in the next few days.

She said: “I have a concern about the capacity constraints right now with the UK-wide system and for Scotland in recent days this has not been an issue of access to testing slots at regional testing centres or mobile testing units but instead it has been one of access to sufficient Lighthouse laboratory processing and it is this that has led to a backlog in the system and longer turnaround times for tests than we we want to be the case.

“As this is a UK-wide system we are not able to resolve this on our own and the issues are impacted by demand elsewhere in the UK.

“To that end last night I had a constructive conference call with Matt Hancock, the UK Health Secretary, and Dido Harding, head of the UK testing system, to seek assurances that Scotland will continue to get fair access to the UK-wide laboratory capacity and discuss how we can resolve these issues.

“So I hope to see improvement over the next few days but of course I will continue to provide updates.”