The number of coronavirus patients in Scotland’s hospitals has reached another record high – for the sixth time in the past eight days.

       Scottish Government figures showed that on Sunday there were 2,360 people with recently confirmed Covid-19 in hospital, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.

       The latest peak in hospital numbers comes after a slight fall in the total.

       The number of hospital patients had increased to stand at 2,326 on Thursday, before dropping to 2,309 on Friday. There was then a slight increase on Saturday, to 2,313, before the total rose again by 47.

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       However, the number of Covid patients requiring intensive care has fallen since Thursday, going from 28 to 21 on both Saturday and Sunday.

       It comes as the Scottish Government reported a further 7,479 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.

       No further deaths were reported in the latest daily figures, although Register Offices are generally closed at weekends.

       Since the start of the pandemic a total of 11,320 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.

       The rise in hospital cases comes in the wake of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting that the proportion of people with Covid had increased in Scotland in the week ending March 20.

       The ONS estimated that 473,800 people were infected then – with this equating to about one in 11 people.

       Meanwhile, the Scottish Government’s daily statistics showed 4,352,430 people have received their first dose of coronavirus vaccine while 4,092,082 have had two doses and 3,449,125 have received a third dose or booster jab.