PEOPLE holding house parties are risking spreading coronavirus, Nicola Sturgeon has warned as new clusters of cases have emerged.

The First Minister warned that if people do not follow the rules in their own homes there will be further outbreaks and said further ­restrictions may need to be ­imposed, albeit reluctantly.

New cases in Glasgow have emerged among school-age teenagers, who have not been inside the school since it returned this week.

Cases continue to be reported in Aberdeen and new cases in Orkney are being investigated.

The First Minister said she did not want to single out young people but reiterated the rules on the number of households who should be gathered at any one time as it emerged house parties have been identified as a source of new cases.

Ms Sturgeon repeated the guidance on indoor gathering, stating no more than eight people from a maximum of three households should meet indoors and they must stay two metres apart.

Evidence from contact tracers in the Government’s test and protect scheme has shown that people have been catching coronavirus at house parties.

The First Minister, noting the new evidence has led to concerns over house parties, said: “I want to stress that these present a considerable risk.

“I can’t make this point strongly enough, these rules should not be seen as optional, they are absolutely vital.

“In many respects, they are the most important part of our first line of defence.

“What people do within their own houses is harder for any enforcement action to work against, so more than ever it relies on the good sense and judgement of all of

us.”

She added: “The bottom line here is if these rules are not complied with strictly, this virus is going to spread and we have evidence of that already.”

She added: “Please take great care. House parties really are not sensible things to do right now.”

The First Minister also said the R number, which measures the number of people who are re-infected by a positive case, has potentially increased to above one again.

However, she said it was not a cause for alarm and was to be expected as localised outbreaks like in Aberdeen have a disproportionate effect on the number when across the country cases are low.

There has been 182 cases linked to the Aberdeen outbreak in ­total and more than 800 contacts of those cases have been traced.

Another small cluster, of eight in Glasgow among young people, and another of three in Orkney, possibly linked to the Aberdeen cluster.

Ms Sturgeon said: “Clusters of this kind, I’m afraid to say, are inevitable. We should become more used to hearing about several different clusters because the virus hasn’t gone away.

“While we shouldn’t be unduly alarmed, it is equally important that we’re not in any way complacent.”

The latest daily coronavirus statistics showed 47 new cases in Scotland, taking the total to 19,173.

Of these, 26 are in the Grampian health board area, 10 are in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and three are in NHS Orkney.

There were 258 people in hospital with coronavirus and three in ­intensive care units.

There were no new deaths reported yet again.