Nicola Sturgeon warned Scotland could now be on track of facing a "tsunami of infections" because of the new Omicron variant. Ms Sturgeon said the new variant has the fastest exponential growth seen in the pandemic so far. She said the latest estimates suggest Omicron will likely become the dominant strain of coronavirus in Scotland within days.

       The First Minister also warned the R rate, which calculates the average number of secondary infections produced by a single infected person, could rise above 2 in the coming weeks.

       She said: "The fact is that we do face a renewed and a very severe challenge in the face of the new Omicron variant.

       "To be blunt, because of the much greater and faster transmissibility of this new variant, we may be facing – indeed we may be starting to experience, a potential tsunami of infections.

       "We're not alone in it, far from it, everything I'm about to share is, I believe, broadly reflected in the date for the rest of the UK, too."

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       Ms Sturgeon continued: "And although I'm not familiar with the data elsewhere, I would suspect it's reflected there too.

       "5,018 cases were reported yesterday, which is 9.3 percent of all tests carried out.

       "This is one day's figure but, as you can see, it's a star rise on the average of around 2,800 that we've been reporting recently and underlines out fear a new wave may indeed be starting."

       The First Minister added: "Omicron right now is rising exponentially, indeed what we are seeing in the data just now is perhaps the fastest exponential growth that we have seen in this pandemic so far."

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       "If that continues, and we have no reason, at this stage, to believe that it won't, Omicron is going to very quickly overtake Delta as the dominant strain in Scotland.

       "Indeed, I think we can now say with some confidence that we expect it to overtake Delta within days, not weeks - we estimate this could be as early as the very beginning of next week."

       As of Thursday, 13.3 percent of all PCR tests showed signs of the new variant

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       The First Minister also announced household contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases would have to self-isolate for 10 days regardless of vaccine status or negative test results, and urged people to reconsider holding Christmas parties.

       The First Minister also said, "a smaller percentage of a bigger number will still result in a massive number of cases who might need hospital care".

       Ms Sturgeon added: "Given the volume of people who could be infected by Omicron because of its greater transmissibility, even if most of those cases are mild, the number of cases of serious illness will put massive strain on the ability of the NHS to cope."

       A "significant strain" will also be put on the economy given the number of people who would be required to self-isolate as a result of the transmissibility of the new variant, the First Minister said.