SCOTLAND'S national clinical director has described how the country’s Covid-19 case rate is “dramatically falling”.

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Professor Jason Leitch said: “We had five out of the top 10 local authorities in the UK, now we have none in the top 150.

“We’ve now seen hospitalisations fall. Around 3% of positive people get admitted to hospital but they are now younger, relatively healthy and discharged quicker. But some stay, and we’ve had many deaths over the last few days.”

He said the participation of fans in Euro 2020 had caused a spike in cases, but said it was “important to keep the football in perspective”.

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“The Scotland-England game gave us a spike because of travel, not necessarily Wembley. Unfortunately, from a sporting perspective, Scotland went out far too early. But epidemiologically speaking, that probably did us some favours,” he said.

“We tested a lot of these fans and for a short time (cases) went from 1:1 male-female to 9:1 male-female. It has now returned to 1:1.”

Meanwhile in England, Sage member Professor Neil Ferguson said it is still “too early to tell” what effect the nation's unlocking will have, and stressed that continued “caution” is needed.

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Also speaking to Today, Ferguson said: “We need to remain cautious, especially with the potential increase in contact rates again as the weather becomes less fine and schools return.

“We’re not completely out of the woods, but the equation has fundamentally changed. The effect of vaccines is hugely reducing the risk of hospitalisations and death. And I’m positive that by late September or October time we will be looking back at most of the pandemic.

“We will have Covid with us, we will still have people dying from Covid, but we’ll have put the bulk of the pandemic behind us."