Nicola Sturgeon has said new restrictions may be necessary in the weeks ahead as cases of the omicron variant increases in Scotland.

She revealed today there will be "no immediate changes" to the covid restrictions.

The First Minister said that with the omicron variant it would not be appropriate to relax any rules.

Sturgeon said the cabinet has decided to: "Keep all protections with no immediate changes".

She said: "Given the significant risks of omicron, our judgement is it would be inappropriate to lift restrictions.

"On the contrary it is vital to strenghten compliance."

She said the period ahead may involve "difficult decisions."

She said the government would act "proportionately".

She also said the last two years have shown: "Acting quickly and preventatively is vital.

Sturgeon added: "After almost two years of restrictions ... we also know it is important to minimise further restrictions.

"We will seek to get the balance right."

She said if people can work from home they should.

Sturgeon said: "It is time to go back to basics and ensure we are taking all the steps to minimise getting this virus.

"Working from home. I'm asking employers to ensure this is happening.

To employers she said:"If you had staff working form home at the start of the pandemic, please enable them to do so again from now until the middle of January".

She said people should take a lateral flow test "when mixing with other people, before going to the pub, visiting at someone at home or going shopping."

The daily statistics showed there were 3060 new positive cases of Covid-19 recorded in the last 24 hours.

There were 576 people in hospital, down 15 and 38 patients were in intensive care, down 5.

Another 12 deaths were registered taking the total to 9661.

After two weeks of falling cases, the last seven days have seen a rise.

last week there was a 14% fall, this week there was an increase of 11%.

Cases in the over 60 continue to fall but in all age cohorts under 60 it is rising again, up by 13% in the past week.

The number in hospital has fallen further, so has numbers inntensive care.

Sturgeon said this was "Welcome, but we shouldn't be complacent".

She added: "We know there's always a time lag between rising cases and admissions to hospital and the NHS is under pressure from Covid and from a backlog during the pandemic."

Sturgeon said there have been 99 confirmed omicron cases in Scotland, up 28 in a day.

last week it was nine cases.

She said the doubling time may be as short as two to three days and the R number well over 2.