A reminder of the main points from today's briefing:

• Health Secretary Jean Freeman revealed a further 37 deaths. There were 969 new cases and 1,099 people are in hospital, 80 in intensive care.
• 315 of the new cases were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, with 201 in the Lanarkshire health board area and 121 within NHS Lothian.
• Estonia and Latvia have been added to the quarantine list, Denmark will be removed on Saturday.
• The health secretary warned of incidents with the text message service for people in the shielding category, asking for personal information. An investigation has begun.
• No decision has yet been taken on extending the Christmas school holidays.

We will be back with the latest from the daily briefing on Monday. Until then, we will keep you up to date here on our news website. Take Care.

Alison Johnstone of the Scottish Greens says there is a "balance of risk" over easing restrictions on meeting up indoors for five days over Christmas.

"There may be people for whom, sadly, this could be their last Christmas," she says.

Ms Johnstone says the Scottish public have worked very hard to keep the virus under control and it would be a shame to lose that so people should only meet up if it is essential.

"It is impossible for people to meet in households and be as safe as they would be if they were not doing so," she says.

Scottish Greens co-leader Allison Johnstone tells the BBC's daily briefing programme that parents and pupils needed clarity on extending the Christmas school holidays.

"We have learned about this today through a leak to a newspaper so I think transparency and clarity are key here," she says.

Prof Fiona McQueen reiterates that being vaccinated gives great protection against the disease.

She says the speed of the development has been due to funding and close working from scientists and researchers and the vaccines will go through all the normal safety procedures.

She adds that it is essential to give protection to health and social care workers on the front line.

Image source, PA

Katrine Bussey from the Press Association asks about vaccines. She says UK-wide research suggests that about 64% of the population will be likely to have the vaccine.

She says other vaccines have uptake closer to 90% and asks if the lower number would be problematic.

Jeane Freeman says that she would encourage everyone who is offered the vaccine to take it.

She says as soon as the vaccines are available they are ready to deliver them and an information drop will be sent to households in January.

The health secretary tells BBC Scotland's Aileen Clarke the Scottish government will reach a view on extending the Christmas school holidays when it hears from the expert recovery group.

She says she wants to give people as much notice as possible if there was going to be a change but Christmas was still four weeks away.

"At this point that decision has not been reached," she says,

The health secretary says it would be wrong to speculate or jump to conclusions just because they were looking at different options.

Image source, PA Media

Ross Govans from STV brings up the possibility of extending the school holidays into January.

He asks if this is a trade-off for the five days of relaxed rules over Christmas.

The health secretary says it is part of the expert recovery group's discussions to look at how to maintain their commitment to keep schools open.

Bruce McKenzie from ITV Border asks for reassurance for constituents who have to cross the Scottish-English border after reports people had been stopped by police.

Ms Freeman says if police stop drivers this is simply an enforcement of the rules. She says that, of course, there are exemptions for essential travel and people should not worry if they have an acceptable exemption.

She adds that police are doing their job and people need to know what the restrictions are.

Ms Freeman praises the work of the healthcare sector over the past nine months and says the pressures have again increased significantly in recent weeks.

She says the vast majority of staff were coping well but she knows that these pressures take their toll.

The health secretary says the government is doing all it can to help with the mental health of staff.

She urges anyone with questions to visit the national wellbeing hub at www.promis.scot, external.

There is also a helpline for health and social care workers. It is 0800 111 491.

"it is ok not to be ok," Ms Freeman said, urging people to use the help available.

The health secretary warns of incidents with the text message service for people in the shielding category.

Ms Freeman says she is aware of two incidents where a message was sent from people pretending to be from the texting service asking for people's personal information.

It is being investigated as a matter urgency, she says.

The health secretary says the Scottish government will never ask for financial information or passwords.

Image source, bbc

Estonia and Latvia have been added to the quarantine list, Ms Freeman says.

The travel ban on visitors from Denmark will be lifted on Saturday. The ban was introduced because of fears of outbreaks among mink in the country. Travellers from Denmark will still have to quarantine when they arrive in Scotland.

Ms Freeman also confirms that 315 of the new cases were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, with 201 in the Lanarkshire health board area and 121 within NHS Lothian.

The remainder were spread across nine other health boards.

Jeane Freeman confirms a further 37 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19. That is 4% of total number of tests carried out.

1,099 patients are in hospital with a confirmed case (down 26), with 80 being treated in intensive care (down 10).

A further 37 people who tested positive have died.

Image source, PA Media

Discussions have been taking place about whether the Christmas school holidays could be extended in Scotland.

It has been suggested that all schools could close on 18 December and reopen on 11 January.

Holiday dates vary between different council areas, with most schools due to return between the 5 and 7 January.

The issue was discussed at the Scottish government's education recovery group, but no decisions have yet been made.

Read the full story here.

• The relaxation of coronavirus restrictions at Christmas should be used only to relieve social isolation and not to have a big party, Scotland's national clinical director has said.
• Professor Jason Leitch said the public health advice is to remain cautious, as he reminded Scots "the virus will not take Christmas off".
• Restrictions will be eased between December 23 and December 27 to allow three households to form a "bubble", permitting them to meet indoors, outdoors or in a place of worship.

Image source, Google

Thirteen residents at an East Dunbartonshire care home have died in a Covid-19 outbreak.

The owners of Mavisbank care home in Bishopbriggs confirmed the death toll and said that a further seven residents had also tested positive for the virus.

Another 11 staff members were self-isolating following positive tests.

The Care Inspectorate rated the home in Lennox Crescent as "weak" in its Covid-19 response in an inspection last month.

Read more

Nicola Sturgeon is taking a rare day off from hosting the daily media briefing.

Instead, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman and Chief Nursing Officer Fiona McQueen will give the latest briefing on Covid-19 and take questions from journalists at 12.15pm.

You can follow coverage on this page or on BBC One Scotland or the BBC Scotland channel.