THE First Minister said zero Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours – marking the first weekday with no fatalities since before the beginning of the lockdown in March.

Speaking at the Scottish Government daily briefing, Nicola Sturgeon said 17 new coronavirus cases had been recorded, taking the total of confirmed cases since the beginning of the outbreak to 18,213.

She explained that the percentage of people tested found to have Covid-19 is now well under 1% each day, and yesterday was as low as 0.3%.

Sturgeon said she was “very, very pleased” to say no Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in 24 hours. While this has happened before at weekends, the SNP leader explained the Saturday/Sunday figures can be “artificially low”.

She went on: "Today is the first time that figure has been zero on a weekday since the 20th of March, which is before lockdown began.

“That is really significant, and it is down to the sacrifices of each and every one of you, so thank you to all of you."

More to follow.