Image source, PA Media

Scotland's health secretary is to be questioned by MSPs over the impact of coronavirus in the country's care homes.

It was confirmed on Wednesday that more people have now died with the virus in Scotland's care homes than in its hospitals.

Jeane Freeman will appear before the Scottish Parliament's health committee from 9.30am this morning. You can watch the evidence session here on this live page.

There have been a total of 1,818 deaths linked to the virus in care homes.

This is three more than the 1,815 coronavirus deaths that have been recorded in Scotland's hospitals since the outbreak began in March.

• Read more here
• Scottish care home deaths overtake hospital deaths
• Read the health committee papers here, external

Also on Mornings With Kaye Adams today:

• the Thursday health surgery is all about sex and relationships....psychotherapist Rachel Morris and Dr Paula Briggs here to take your calls and questions . Pick up the phone and dial 0808 5 92 95 00 or text 80295
• and... if you are still thinking of holidays this year, home or abroad , and you have any questions, travel journalist Simon Calder is here to answer them as well as virologist Dr Chris Smith to tell you how to keep yourself safe

Here’s what’s coming up in terms of Covid-19 politics today:

• 9.30am: Health Committee: Health Secretary Jeane Freeman will face MSPs over the impact of Covid-19 on the care sectorYou can watch this here on this live page.
• 9.30am: The Equalities and Human Rights Committee will take evidence on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic from Intercultural Youth Scotland, Radiant and Brighter, Sikh-Sanjog, the Homeless Network Scotland, Article 12 in Scotland and the Gypsy/Traveller programme manager with MECOP
• 12.30pm: Scottish government coronavirus daily briefing
• 2pm: Portfolio questions on Covid-19
• 5pm: UK government coronavirus daily briefing

Andrew Black
BBC Scotland Business Presenter

Image source, Hamish Martin

After more than two months in lockdown, some Scottish distilleries have had to get inventive to stay afloat.

Several started making hand sanitiser, and Edinburgh’s Old Curiosity Distillery has also been concentrating on making tea, honey and developing its own brand of non-alcoholic gin.

The business suffered the double-whammy of a big fall in gin sales and the closure of its herb garden for growing botanicals used to make the drink.

But managing director Hamish Martin is optimistic about the future of his industry and a pickup in orders.

He told the BBC Good Morning Scotland programme: “We will come back to something. It’s difficult to say how it will evolve - but it will evolve.”

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

Callenged on whether advice on protective equipment and widespread testing came early enough for care homes, Aileen Campbell said the initial focus on the NHS was "about making sure we protected people".

She said the Scottish government was dealing with a "very difficult and ever evolving picture", but now had increased testing capacity as well as good guidance, support and funding in place to help care homes.

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Asked about reports that some care homes appear to be having problems accessing tests, Aileen Campbell said regular testing was necessary and should be available.

She told Radio Scotland that care homes that encountered issues should be "enagaging with their NHS boards".

"If people want to get in touch, if they feel things aren't as joined-up as they need to be, then absolutely we need to know now and we need to get on and fix it. There's no desire to hide any of this at all," she said.

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

The Scottish Conservative leader told Radio Scotland that he was concerned about the judgement of the Scottish government over care homes and testing for Covid-19.

"[My focus is] the abdication of duty and failure of government in tackling the situation in our care homes and on testing," he said.

"You can seek to talk about other matters, but that is what is going to affect whether people are living or dying from this virus here in Scotland."

Asked whether the prime minister's chief aide Dominic Cummings' actions had affected the behaviour of people in Scotland with regards to lockdown, Mr Carlaw said his impression was that there was still a "very widespread determination to abide by key advice".

The breakthrough in the case of the missing three-year-old leads many of Scotland's front pages.

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

Jackson Carlaw says he maintains that Dominic Cummings should have stepped down after he admitted travelling more than 200 miles during the lockdown.

He told Radio Scotland that Mr Cummings' explanation at his press conference had not drawn a line under the affair, but left people "perplexed and angry" after explanations that were "not wholly convincing".

"The focus, as the first minister has said, has to be entirely on the ongoing tackling of Covid and I believe he's proved a distraction to that task," Mr Carlaw said.

Asked whether Mr Cummings was a fit person to be advising the prime minister, Mr Carlaw said that was a decision for Boris Johnson and not for him to say.

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

The Health Secretary Jeane Freeman is to be questioned by MSPs over the impact of coronavirus in Scotland's care homes.

It was confirmed yesterday that more people have now died with the virus in care homes than hospitals.

Erskine Care Homes, which looks after veterans in their four sites in the central belt, says testing of staff and residents has been patchy and inconsistent.

So far some staff and residents have been tested, but that was more than a fortnight ago.

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

The director of a Scottish care home group has called for more regular testing for all staff and residents in care homes.

Derek Barron, who runs Erskine Care Homes, said testing had come "a bit late" to care homes and staff were often kept waiting for results.

National Records of Scotland figures show that more than half of all deaths linked to Covid-19 up to 31 May have been in care homes.

Mr Barron told Radio Scotland that he had been able to test about 750 of his staff and residents across three of his four homes in the past few weeks.

He said in this run of tests, six staff had tested positive - with four not going on to display any symptoms of coronavirus.

Image source, Getty Images

Cancer Research UK has joined other charities to express concern after most trials stopped taking new patients, or stopped completely because of the lockdown.

The Scottish government says that with the number of new cases of coronavirus declining, the time is right to work towards the restoration of a diverse portfolio of health and social care research in Scotland.

Image source, PA Media

It was confirmed yesterday that more people have now died with the virus in Scotland's care homes than in its hospitals.

Jeane Freeman will appear before MSPs on Holyrood's health committee later.

There have been a total of 1,818 deaths linked to the virus in care homes.

Image source, N Turnbull

Planning work and pre-start preparation will shortly begin in keeping with Scottish government advice.

Transport Scotland says construction will resume on 16 projects, including work on the Forth Replacement Crossing and improvements to the M8, M73 and M74.

A further 25 others were also in preparation before work on sites was temporarily ceased at the end of March.

Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: "These pre-start preparations on our major projects involve making alterations to site offices, welfare facilities, parking arrangements and working spaces to ensure they comply with physical distancing principles."

Here are some of yesterday's headlines:

• The weekly National Records of Scotland figures showed more people have now died with coronavirus in care homes than in hospitals
• For the fifth week in a row, the number of people dying has fallen
• The latest data shows that up until 31 May there was a total of 3,911 fatalities where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate
• The economic impact of the pandemic hit home when Rolls Royce announced plans to shed 9,000 jobs worldwide, including 700 at Inchannan in Renfrewshire
• Childminding services and outdoor nurseries were allowed to resume as part of first phase of lifting the lockdown

Image source, PA Media

Welcome to Thursday's live coverage of the coronavirus crisis in Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon will give her update at about 12:30. You can follow it here on the live page, as well as on TV and iPlayer.

And Health Secretary Jeane Freeman is to be questioned by MSPs over the impact of coronavirus in the country's care homes, after it was confirmed that more people have now died with the virus in Scotland's care homes than in its hospitals.

We will bring you all every development as it happens.