Economy and Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop announces a funding package for Edinburgh's celebrated Fringe Festival to enable it to return next year.

The festival will receive a £1m interest-free loan from the Scottish government, she says, plus £149,000 from the government's enterprise and resilience fund.

It will also receive a £100,000 grant from the City of Edinburgh Council to help mitigate the "significant losses" incurred by the cancellation of this year’s event.

Fiona Hyslop, Scotland's Economy Secretary, says the scale of the challenge ahead is "substantial" given the impact of Covid-19 on the economy.

She says around 628,000 Scottish jobs have been furloughed, with a further 146,000 people using the self-employment income support scheme.

Ms Hyslop urges the UK government to continue the job retention scheme in some form "to keep people in work rather than funding mass unemployment".

Various packages to support businesses now tally over £2.3bn, she says.

An independent advisory group on economic recovery has been formed to provide expert advice, which will report this month as it helps "set the direction of Scotland’s recovery", as well as a cross-party forum to build consensus.

"We are doing everything we can to support the Scottish recovery," she adds, announcing a £2m fund to help town centres and local communities.

Scotland's national clinical director admits that the country easing lockdown is "an anxious time for many" as many have become used to staying at home and away from public spaces to reduce the chances of contracting Covid-19.

Prof Jason Leitch realises people will be hungry for information but points out that "there is a great deal of wrong information out there" - what the World Health Organisation calls the "infordemic" - which causes confusion and damages public health responses.

He goes on to "debunk some of those myths".

• You cannot prevent yourself catching Covid-19 by exposing yourself to sun or high temperatures.
• Vaccines against pneumonia, such as flu, do not protect against Covid-19.
• There are no specific medicines for Covid-19. There are specific treatments under investigation and will be released for use as soon as they are safe to do so.

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted a programme to test care workers is accelerating.

Only a fifth of Scotland's care home staff have been tested for coronavirus since the Scottish government promised to offer them all routine testing.

Asked by the BBC’s Sarah Smith why more tests had not been conducted so far Sturgeon said health boards have been given a “ fairly direct indication that we think that progress should be accelerated” and that is now in hand.

She added: "It does take time to put in place a programme for testing of that number of people in place.”

Image source, Reuters

Nicola Sturgeon says Scotland is at "a critical juncture" as people think the lockdown should be eased because the rate of infection is declining.

The first minister realises "we are all anxious about the impact on the economy".

But she says the reason Scotland is making good progress is because "we are carefully following a plan".

She suggests that if Scotland diverts from that plan to suppress the virus, it puts that progress at risk.

Ms Sturgeon does not want to risk a resurgence of the virus but hopes that the lockdown can be further eased on Thursday.

Image source, Getty Images

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Nicola Sturgeon says the Scottish government is taking action to create and protect jobs to support businesses hit particularly hard by the coronavirus crisis.

The first minister announces a new £62m Energy Transition Fund to help the country's energy sector, which is facing a massive decline in global demand.

Over the next five years, the fund will help key energy projects supporting Scotland’s move to net-zero.

These include a global underwater hub – bringing together expertise form academia and industry in marine renewables - and the Energy Transition Zone, a new business park adjacent to Aberdeen South Harbour.

Image source, Getty Images

The first minister points out that the latest lockdown measures will be announced on Thursday.

Nicola Stugeon says the latest research on which the Scottish government's route map is based will be published today.

She says it shows that the vast majority of the Scottish population support "a careful but gradual easing of restrictions".

However, she reveals that 90% of people say that they would be willing to isolate for 14 days if they had come into contact with someone with Covid-19 symptoms.

The same number say they would be willing to undergo testing for the virus if asked to do so and 88% are willing to give details of those they have been in contact with.

"That's important and it's also very encouraging," Ms Sturgeon says, because Test and Protect is "vital" to keeping the virus suppressed.

Nicola Sturgeon points out that the latest statistics on the Scottish labour market will be published next Tuesday, which will cover the period from February to April.

The first minister expects to see a significant impact on employment and a rise in unemployment because of the pandemic.

She says that this "is before the effects of Brexit" is taken into account and points out that, along with her Welsh counterpart, she has written to the UK government asking for an extension of that to "take away the risk of a no-deal outcome and make sure we concentrate on the challenges to the economy from the outbreak".

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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon refers to today's figures showing a record fall in UK GDP.

She points out she has previously welcomed the UK government's furlough scheme, which she says has helped preserve jobs during a difficult period, but suggests it is time for the Treasury to signal a further extension of such support.

She points out that other countries, such as France, have already done so and put in a two-year plan.

Ms Sturgeon says that, without that, businesses will either be forced to open before it is safe to do so, costing lives, or businesses have to take an even bigger hit, costing jobs.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirms 15,709 people have tested positive for Covid-19, an increase of 27 from yesterday.

There were 914 patients in hospital last night with either confirmed or suspected Covid-19, an increase of five overall, although the number of confirmed cases dropped by 20.

There are 23 patients in intensive care, an increase of two.

A further three people who tested positive have died, taking the total to 2,442 deaths in Scotland by that measure.

3,873 people have been discharged from hospital after receiving treatment for the virus since 5 March.

Image source, AFP

Nicola Sturgeon will update us shortly on the latest developments around coronavirus in Scotland.

The first minister will be joined at the briefing by Economy, Fair Work and Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop and National Clinical Director Jason Leitch.

You can follow it by clicking on the play icon above after 12.30 or watch it on the BBC Scotland channel.

Glenn Campbell
BBC Scotland Political Correspondent

Nicola Sturgeon and her Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford have written to Boris Johnson asking him to delay the UK's exit from the single market.

They tell him that due to the coronavirus crisis, the end of the year would be the worst possible time to end the transition period.

Mornings with Stephen Jardine
BBC Radio Scotland

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Many couples will prefer to postpone their weddings even though marriages are likely to be allowed again after Scotland moves into phase two of lockdown easing, expert Natasha Radmehr suggests.

The editor of The Scottish Wedding Directory thinks they will want to "have a wedding that feels like a normal wedding", with physical distancing still in place during phase two and three.

"Even if we can go ahead with weddings in phase two, which we are hopeful will commence next Thursday, the guidance says they are going to have to be quite small," Ms Radmehr points out.

"They have not said exactly how many guests can come, but we can probably guess that it might be you, your partner and a couple of witnesses and maybe some close family.

"Once we move into phase three, that's when there will be more guests and then in phase four, that's when we will have weddings more akin to what we're used to, but even then we expect some restrictions in place."

Mornings with Stephen Jardine
BBC Radio Scotland

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Many people have taken to doing fitness and exercise classes online during lockdown, with yoga proving popular despite the challenges of not having a teacher in the room.

"It is a holistic practice; you get a bit of everything from it - fitness, combined with some mindfulness - which I think is why so many people are drawn to it at this time," yoga teacher Cat Meffan tells BBC Radio Scotland.

While Ms Meffan does free classes on You Tube, plus paid membership classes via Zoom, she admits that while the teacher can see participants, "it is nothing like being in a class".

"There's a lot to be said for having a space which is just for your yoga practice, especially if you have got family and there are kids running around," she adds.

"Trying to angle the camera can be tricky. There is only so much a teacher can give you in terms of adjustment and cues for alignment through the lens of your laptop or phone."

Mornings with Stephen Jardine
BBC Radio Scotland

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The Covid-19 crisis has hit the wedding industry particularly hard because 2020 was such a popular year for couples tying the knot, the editor of The Scottish Wedding Directory suggests.

Natasha Radmehr told BBC Radio Scotland: "It is normally peak wedding season - the summer months are usually hugely busy and, over and above that, this year was expected be a bigger than usual year because of the date.

"A lot of people liked the idea of getting married in 2020. It has been an extra blow for the wedding industry."

Ms Radmehr says there is so much uncertainty because couples do not know whether weddings earmarked for later this year will be able to go ahead and, if they do, how many guests will be able to attend.

They might then be faced with the choice of having a smaller wedding this year or postponing and having a larger one in 2021, when they might find it difficult to book their preferred dates because many weddings have already been booked for next year.

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Plans are being put in place to reopen businesses and facilities in the UK's largest national park.

Scotland's tourism businesses have been told to prepare to reopen on 15 July in line with the phased easing of lockdown restrictions.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority and Cairngorms Business Partnership have been planning on how to reopen sites, including car parks, for more than two months.

Under the banner #CairngormsTogether, they have a website with Covid-19 advice and are developing a site which will have information on the reopening of businesses, and restrictions they will have in place.

The park includes parts of the Highlands, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Perthshire.

Mornings with Stephen Jardine
BBC Radio Scotland

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It is "very likely" that social distancing rules will be tweaked so that different rules apply indoors and outdoors, an infection and immunity expert has told BBC Radio Scotland.

Edinburgh University's Dr Christine Tait-Burkard points out: "That is what the evidence suggests in other countries. South Korea has looked at their super-spreading events and, of 318 super-spreading events, only one of them happened outdoors."

She thinks the Scottish government is also likely to increase the size of the "bubbles" with whom people can work and socialise, while restaurants may have to have a maximum of four people per table once they reopen.

Dr Tait-Burkard points out that World Health Organisation advice is that anything above one metre social distancing reduces the risk of infection by coronavirus "considerably".

Amid calls for the social distancing rule to be reduced to 1m, she says the reason the UK and Scottish governments have so far stuck to 2m is that, although normal breathing will spread the virus to only about half a metre, coughing increases that to about one and a half metres, while sneezing can spread it to eight metres.

Image source, Jamie Brown

Relatives of 450 people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic are demanding an immediate public inquiry.

The families want an urgent review of "life and death" steps needed to minimise the continuing effects of the virus and a guarantee that documents relating to the crisis will be kept.

A full inquiry would take place later, says lawyer Elkan Abrahamson, who is representing the families.

The group's request comes after Scotland's former chief scientific adviser Professor Dame Anne Glover said an inquiry must be held before a second wave of the virus hits the UK.

Prof Glover, who is now president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, said a second wave is likely to come at a time that is likely to coincide with seasonal influenza, and "give us serious problems".

The government has said its current focus is on dealing with the pandemic.

Read more

Image source, RZSS

The owner of Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park has appealed to the Scottish government to allow the sites to reopen this month.

Zoos and safari parks in England can reopen from Monday, but the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, external (RZSS) says it has been told the earliest it can potentially open its sites is 15 July.

It said missing the start of the summer season over the next five weeks could see it lose a total of £500,000, and it has already had to borrow £5 million.

Chief executive David Field says while the RZSS understands the need to ease lockdown measures gradually, the wildlife conservation charity "desperately" needs the parks to open again or risks further damaging losses which puts its future in doubt.

Read more here.