Nicola Sturgeon said people should "stay at home" as much as they can to slow the spread of the omicron variant.

Thre were  5951 new cases recorded yesterday and the First Minister said  45.4% were  omicron.

She said: "Omicron is spreading exceptionally fast. I am profoundly concerned by the scale and immediacy of the spread.

"We must understand omicron is running faster then the fastest roll out of vaccines.

"As we speed up (vaccinations) we must also act to slow this virus down.

"Even if omicron is milder, and we don't know yet if it is, many will still become severely unwell and die.

"If we don't act now the overwhelming of NHS will happen."

She said she wanted to stress this is "really serious".

Sturgeon added:  "Please reduce your contact with people from households other than your own as much as you possibly can. For now, please stay at home much more than you normally would and as much as is feasible.
"Right now the risk of getting Covid from interactions with others is high and it is rising. So ask yourself before doing anything you might have planned over the coming days, is it as safe as it needs to be and is it vital enough to you to justify that risk.
"I suspect what is most important to most of us over the next couple of weeks is having time with our families at Christmas. Every interaction we have before then increases the risk of us getting Covid and so possibly losing that"

She also called for more financial support from the UK Government to implement measures and to support businesses that are affected.

She said: "We must not sleepwalk into an emegency."

Sturgeon said she has written to Boris Johnson, Prime Minister asking him to put support in place and asked to speak directly to him today.