The Scottish government has released the latest figures on coronavirus cases in Scotland.

13.305 people have tested positive for Covid-19, an increase of 156 from yesterday.

1,585 patients are in hospital with a suspected or confirmed case (down one), with 93 being treated in intensive care (up nine).

3,071 people have been discharged from hospital after receiving treatment for the virus since 5 March, up 55 from yesterday.

A further 36 people who tested positive have died, taking the total to 1,847 deaths in Scotland by that measure.

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Up to 2,000 UK seafarers are stranded on ships around the world because of coronavirus lockdowns, the industry's trade body has told the BBC.

The UK Chamber of Shipping wants the UK government to become the first to sign up to a global plan to get crews home.

And the Nautilus International maritime union said seafarers stuck on ships for months were depressed and homesick, "with no end in sight" to their ordeal.

The government said it was working to ensure those affected could get home.

Read more.

Off The Ball
BBC Radio Scotland

Q: I am a taxi driver with automatic doors and a partition between me and my passengers, I also sanitise the car after every trip. Is it okay to carry on?

A: He is an example to the rest of us. That sounds terrific to me if it's for essential travel. I would add contactless or pre-booked payment. Of course, what you wouldn't want is the back of the cab full of folk from different households.

Q: As the summer comes, can the dreaded Scottish midgies transmit the virus?

A: That doesn't sound possible. You have to get active virus from a droplet of fluid and the other person would need to ingest it.

Q: Can tennis courts be re-opened safely?

A: Not yet. However, I think outdoor, recreations like tennis, golf and angling will be some of the first things that come back. We are not there yet and the optics are part of it. We have single parent families locked inside, so we need to be careful.

Q: Can the virus be transmitted easily on bank notes and coins?

A: It doesn't like rough surfaces like notes but the risk is not zero. Contacless payment and online purchasing is the safer way to do things.

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Off The Ball
BBC Radio Scotland

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Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government's national clinical director, is back on Off The Ball to answers listeners' questions.

Q: How will museums reopen safely?

A: Hand hygiene will be key, so sanitiser will have to be available, along with physical distancing, which shouldn't be too difficult. There will need to be less people visiting and workers may be protected by plastic screens like you see in the supermarkets.

Q: Should we be reporting people who demonstrate Covid-19 symptoms in public?

A: Remember, the symptoms are pretty generic, they look a lot like allergies or the common cold, so we need to be careful not to stigmatise people who are coughing for other reasons.

Off The Ball
BBC Radio Scotland

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Q: My holiday company won't cancel a booking for 1 July, saying travel may be permitted by then. Will people be flying safely by then?

A:I don't expect that will be the case. Mrs Leitch and I have a holiday booked for the day before and it has not yet been cancelled. Most of the advice suggests you wait for the organisation to cancel it, then it's easier to work from there for refunds etc.

Q: We have a family gathering planned for mid-August for my mother's 80th birthday, with approximately 20 guests. Do you think this will be possible?

A: It's too early to say but, unlike our friend who was hoping to get on a plane, I would hold off any decision making. If we continue to suppress the virus, if test, trace, isolate works well, then we may well be in bigger groups by the middle of August. I don't think we will be close to normal by then, but it could be possible for a couple of households to meet up. We can maybe use social bubbles to help lonely people connect with family and friends and gradually build from there.

Off The Ball
BBC Radio Scotland

Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government's national clinical director, is back on Off The Ball to answers listeners' questions.

Q: Is it true the virus will come in three waves, as has been reported in Spain?

A: There's no proof of that at all but there is a risk of subsequent waves of infection. If we said today 'all bets are off, do whatever you like' we're all back to normal. There would definitely be a second wave of the virus - and it would probably be worse than the first wave. The virus is still out there, it hasn't gone away. That's why you hear us talking about baby steps.

Q: If we had not bothered with any kind of lockdown at all, what state would the country be in?

A: It's not completely predictable but if you look at northern Italy, which was hit hard when we didn't know much about this virus, we had scenes of intensive care in hospital corridors, the health service was overrun - and that would have happened. More people would have died, no question.

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The Scottish Retail Consortium has called for "visibility" of a route out of lockdown after reports that garden centres are to reopen in England and Wales.

The Welsh government will let them open from Monday, with England to follow later in the week.

SRC director David Lonsdale said retailers in Scotland had shown they could operate "safely and responsibly".

He said they had invested significantly in social distancing and hygiene measures.

A sixth resident with Covid-19 has died at a care home on Skye.

The death has been confirmed by HC-One, the company that owns the Home Farm Care Home.

More than 50 residents and staff have tested positive for the virus at the care home in Portree.

Good Morning Scotland - Weekend
BBC Radio Scotland

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"We are sitting on a ticking time bomb of student deprivation," warns Liam McCabe, president of the National Union of Students.

He says students are feeling "disengaged and concerned" by the current closure of colleges and universities, while many have lost vital part-time jobs.

Mr McCabe also points out that students are facing "massive delays" on accessing universal credit or are often ineligible, while hardship fund money is being quickly snapped up.

"If something is not done very soon, many students who are incredibly capable will be driven out of education - quite possibly into poverty," he tells BBC Radio Scotland.

National clinical director Jason Leitch's weekly sessions on Off The Ball have been so well received that presenter Tam Cowan has even written an ode to the professor ahead of his latest appearance on the BBC Radio Scotland show today.

Watch below!

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The R-value or reproduction number is at the heart of Nicola Sturgeon's decision not to take Scotland out of lockdown.

Speaking yesterday, the first minister said it would be "very, very risky" to ease restrictions.

The reason for this? "The all-important R number".

So, what is the R number and why might it be higher in Scotland than the rest of the UK?

Read on for the full story

Angie Brown
BBC Scotland news reporter

Image source, Matt McAllister

Geologist Matt McAllister chose to go back to work because he would rather be isolated on an oil rig than live under lockdown restrictions at home.

The 31-year-old, from Edinburgh, said he had regained control of his life by returning to the platform in the North Sea.

Mr McAllister was not scared about coronavirus reaching the rig after comparing the statistics from the outbreak with the UK's usual annual death toll of about 600,000.

He said more people had died during the Beast from the East storms in 2018 than had died from Covid-19 so far in the UK.

"I've looked at the Covid-19 mortality rates and the numbers dying from it are very small compared to the number of deaths per year," he added.

Read more here

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On the day when the Scottish Cup final should have been played at Hampden, frustrated Falkirk chairman Gary Deans has claimed a "small cabal" of Scottish Premiership clubs are to blame for bringing down league reconstructions plans.

A 15-strong panel, including Deans, had been set up to look at proposals but could not find consensus after the ballot to end the lower leagues prematurely because of the coronavirus crisis.

Falkirk will stay in League One having missed out on the title, and promotion, by one point from Raith Rovers.

Six top-flight club are reported to have opposed changing the current 12-10-10-10 set-up.

"The principle of 'do no harm' to Scottish football during the pandemic was thrown out of the window a long time ago and this decision will cause harm to many clubs - Falkirk included," Deans added.

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Good Morning Scotland - Weekend
BBC Radio Scotland

Airports and airlines are calling for urgent clarification from the government on news that passengers arriving in the UK are expected to be asked to quarantine for 14 days.

The industry has been told the new restriction will come into force at the end of this month but is reportedly going to exclude key workers, such as lorry drivers.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Lucy Morton, from the union that represents Border staff, said: "Is this airline passengers only or will this include individuals arriving by boat? And what will we do with irregular migrants who don't have a home to self-isolate in?"

Good Morning Scotland - Weekend
BBC Radio Scotland

Speaking on Good Morning Scotland, Prof Linda Bauld says figures show we are "moving in the right direction" in terms of infection rates.

“I think in terms of deaths we need to bear in mind the time lag - unfortunately some people are really quite unwell for some time," the Edinburgh University public health expert explains.

“What gives governments more confidence is the number of hospital admissions and the rate of ICU beds and as you know that is going down consistently over multiple days now.”

She says that could result in some easing of lockdown restrictions.

“I think we will see some lifting of those soon – even in a small way – and that is encouraging for all of us," she adds.

Good Morning Scotland - Weekend
BBC Radio Scotland

Professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh Linda Bauld tells Good Morning Scotland she is "very concerned" about a fall in cancer screenings, referrals and treatment during lockdown.

“These are not immediate impacts for many people, but the consequences longer term will be very serious," she says.

“The earlier we get to somebody, the better the treatment outcomes are and that is the problem at the moment.

“We need to get parts of the NHS that can be up and running again up and running soon and I think we can do that actually.”

Image source, Erica Banks

A bride-to-be’s friends and family organised a surprise hen do to replace the one they originally had planned.

Erica Banks, from Aberdeen, was treated to the virtual celebration, featuring afternoon tea, flowers, drinks, quizzes, music and dancing - and the virtual company of many of her nearest and dearest.

Read the full story here

The monarch's message to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day makes the front pages of Scotland's newspapers.

Read more here.

Good Morning Scotland - Weekend
BBC Radio Scotland

Allan Wilson of the Institute of Biomedical Science suggests that more important than any target figure for testing is knowing where, how and how often people will be tested.

“What we don’t seem to be able to do is join up the people who need to be tested with the testing and I think that is something we haven’t done well," he says.

Mr Wilson says target figures in Scotland had been "more realistic" but added that testing everyone was unlikely to be possible in the short to medium term.

“It’s still in parts of the country – including Scotland – a bit of a hand to mouth existence for testing,” he adds.

“We get deliveries of reagents and chemicals to do testing for a period of time, but we have no guarantee that there is a next delivery coming behind that so we can maintain that capacity.”