The Covid -19 situation is more concerning than any time since last March, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said, announcing a new lockdown in response to a highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus.

Sturgeon said the new variant accounts for nearly half of new cases in Scotland, and is 70 per cent more transmissible, as she announced a legal requirement for Scots to stay at home from midnight.

“As a result of this new variant, [the virus] has just learned to run much faster, and has most definitely picked up pace in the past couple of weeks,” Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament.

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