Nicola Sturgeon led her weekly Covid update to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday where she revealed details of a new Covid sub-variant.
A sub-variant of Omicron - BA.2- has been identified and is currently under investigation.
In her briefing, Ms Sturgeon informed MSPs that mask-wearing in schools would remain for the time being but suggested that these restrictions could be lifted soon.
The First Minister also said that the easing of working from home guidance, which lifted yesterday, as well as the planned changes to international travel from next week, would continue despite BA.2.
What did the First Minister say about the BA.2 Covid variant?
During the briefing, Ms Sturgeon said that BA2. is "not a cause for any alarm" and there is no need to make any change to the current measures at the moment.
There has been a total of 26 cases of the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron have been confirmed in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has said, though this number is likely to be an underestimate.
Today First Minister @NicolaSturgeon will give an update to @ScotParl on #coronavirus.
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) February 1, 2022
Watch live ➡️ https://t.co/zWDxp2MyAe from 2:20pm pic.twitter.com/vIoAobCFSS
The First Minister told MSPs: “Genomic sequencing is being used to investigate this further.
She encouraged those who are eligible for their booster dose to get their vaccine and urged people to exercise social distancing and take lateral flow tests before socialising in line with current guidance.
How many cases of the BA.2 Covid variant are there in Scotland?
Alongside her usual latest Covid cases update, Nicola Sturgeon informed MSPs that cases of the new BA.2 variant have been identified in Scotland.
Ms Sturgeon said: “So far, I can confirm that in Scotland, 26 cases of BA.2 have been confirmed through genomic sequencing but we expect this number to increase as more sequencing results are reported.
Overall, Covid cases had risen slightly this week compared to last week, up by 2%.
7,565 new cases of COVID-19 were reported and there were 30 new reported deaths of people who have tested positive.
See the full breakdown of the daily Covid statistics via the Scottish Government website.
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