Nicola Sturgeon has repeated her call to stay at home as much as you can before Christmas.

The First Minister said if you want to spend Christmas with your family, then don't go out in the next week.

She said if you are meeting people make sure it's no more than three households and take a lateral flow test immediately before you go.

Sturgeon said: "In the run up to Christmas, stay at home more than you normally would."

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She said if you want that Christmas with family "don't risk that by going out and catching covid."

The First Minister said the new omicron form of the virus is circulating widely.

Sturgeon added: "If someone in your group, or in the same venue has it, your chances of catching it are much higher."

She held a briefing to re-enforce the request to limit your contacts and stay at home as much as is feasible.

Sturgeon said: "My advice right now is, please limit your social interactions as much as you can right now. Stay at home as much as you can."

She recognised the advice is having a severe impact on business like hospitality.

She said it was "a cruel blow to everybody but has hit these sectors hard all over again."

READ MORE:Nicola Sturgeon says 'stay at home as much as you can' in new omicron update

She revealed the £100m funding from the Scottish Government included £66m to hospitality, £8m to the supply chain, £20m to the culture sector and £3m to the wedding sector.

Sturgeon said: "We are working to ensure businesses get this money as soon as possible."

She added: "The support is significant but I know it won't fully compensate. That's why I wrote to the Prime Minister.

"That (support) can only come from the UK Government because it has borrowing powers the Scottish Government doesn't have."

 

Statistics

There were 4336 new cases recorded yesterday.

There were  522 people in hospital with Covid, down 10 and there were 33 patients in intensive care, down 11.

Sturgeon said there is a lag between rising cases and hospitalisations.

Another 7 deaths were registered taking the total to 9771.

Omicron

There were 696 confirmed cases, through genomic sequencing.

The First Minister said this underestimates the true volume of omicron.

She said a better measure is the absence of the s gene. and said 95% of tests are analysed.

She said: "This revealed that cases are rising faster than anything previously in the pandemic. Cases are doubling every two to three days.

Last Friday, she said, 15% were omicron, today it's 51% and it has now replaced Delta as the dominant strain, and the R number is possibly above 4. 

She said cases increased in the past week by more than 40%.

Sturgeon said: "The tsunami I warned about a week ago is starting to hit us.

"We are not powerless in the face of it. We must slow it down.

"Even if it is less severe, if that's true, it will still cause hospitalisations and people will die.

"A smaller percentage of a bigger number of infections will result in a massive number of cases needing hospital care."

 

Vaccinations 

The First Minister said it appears omicron is better at evading vaccines but boosters are effective.

There were 67,616, vaccinations delivered  on Thursday, and 63,000 were booster jags.

More than half the over 18s have had a booster.