Scotland's national clinical director has warned that Covid is "everywhere" as we enter another spike in cases driven by Omicron sub-variants. 

Professor Jason Leitch urged Scots to not throw "caution to the wind" as he encouraged people to "start to think about that alcohol gel" and "if you can wear a mask on a bus or a train". 

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, he said about the virus: "Frankly, just now, it is everywhere. It's 300,000 or so people in a seven-day period, and they've got it in this Omicron sub-variant, we think, and that's what's driving this.

"Overall, we're living with this virus in an entirely different way from a year ago, and a year before that."

Glasgow Times: Scotland is heading for third wave of Covid pandemic, Jason Leitch warns

Omicron  BA.4 and BA.5 have taken over previous dominant variants in Scotland.

Asked whether the virus is growing weaker with time, he said: "Unfortunately, not wouldn't that be lovely."

"The good news is that 98% of Scots have antibodies. So that's either having had the disease previously, or having had a course of the vaccination. 

"The antivirals are really changing the game so the mortality and the harm is much lower, but you still get long Covid. 

"You still get people with post-viral symptoms. You still get quite a long tail of this disease, so we shouldn't treat it lightly.

"We shouldn't just throw caution to the wind. Living with it is not the same as ignoring it."

While encouraging people to take some easy precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, Professor Leitch said it does not seem the new sub-variants are "escaping the vaccine".

"It looks as though new it's not giving more serious disease," he said. "In fact, a new report yesterday from Public Health Scotland showed very bluntly the change in outcome for patients and families from this version of the virus with this version of vaccination is so much better than wave one and wave two."