First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that an independent inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic will be up and running by the end of the year.

Other key points included:

• The latest daily figure of new Covid cases (4,323) is the "largest we have ever recorded in a single day", Ms Sturgeon says.
• She says there has been a "sharp rise" in Covid-19, with new cases more than doubling over the past week.
• "That is one of the sharpest rises we have experienced at any point during the pandemic," she says.
• About half of all new cases were in people under the age of 25 with 34% of Tuesday's tally in the under 19s.
• The latest stats show Scotland recorded 10 coronavirus-linked deaths in the past 24 hours
• The daily test positivity rate is 14.5%.
• A total of 364 people were in hospital and 43 patients were in intensive care.
• The first minister warns Scotland is now at a "fragile and potentially pivotal moment" in the fight against the virus
• She says vaccinations have weakened the link between cases and serious harm but not completely broken it.
• Ms Sturgeon says she cannot "completely rule out" re-imposing coronavirus restrictions

Nicola Sturgeon ends by saying that the situation is much better than it was previously thanks to vaccination.

But she says we must remember the virus is circulating around us.

She says it is a moment where we need to "up our game" and make sure we are providing as much resistance to the virus as possible.

Image source, PA Media

The last question comes from Simon Johnson from the Daily Telegraph who asks if it will be more difficult this year to ask people to go back to restrictions, now that they have been double vaccinated.

Ms Sturgeon says she is confident the vast majority of people in Scotland will follow advice and do the things they know they have to to limit transmission.

She says she believes people want to do what they can to avoid catching the infection. And she says they want to avoid infecting their loved ones.

But she adds that she does not underestimate how hard it would be to return to restrictions after such a long time.

Back at the briefing, Michael Blackley from the Daily Mail asks about the current restrictions and how this is affected by rising infections.

Ms Sturgeon says the most imminent review is on societal restrictions - the wearing of face coverings in public places, restrictions on numbers at events and taking contact details in hospitality.

She says this will be announced to the Scottish Parliament next week.

But she does hint that having heard the latest figures today, it is unlikely these will be lifted as early as next week.

The number of daily Covid cases in Scotland has reached a new record high as a total of 4,323 new cases were reported on Tuesday.

The previous highest level was during the summer wave in early July, when the number of daily cases peaked at 4,234.

About half of all new cases were in people under the age of 25 with 34% of Tuesday's tally in the under 19s.

The new leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Alex Cole-Hamilton, says it is "troubling" that we are seeing record numbers of new cases and high test-positivity rates.

"I think it is very telling that was not met with the introduction of further restrictions," he tells the BBC Covid update programme.

"It suggests we have moved to a different phase in Covid where we have accepted we have to live around it and it will be a fact of life for the foreseeable future."

However, Mr Cole-Hamilton says he is concerned that the spike in infections will lead to more long Covid, where the effects of the virus linger for many months.

Douglas Ross says the rise in case numbers was expected as restrictions were eased.

"Crucially we are not seeing a similar significant increase in those being admitted to hospital or into intensive care," the Scottish Conservative leader says.

"Because of the success of the vaccination scheme, and the fact that so many people have been protected now by both doses, that means the effect of Covid-19 is far less than it was at this time last year," Mr Ross says.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross told the BBC programme the public inquiry into the Covid pandemic in Scotland was welcome and was "long called-for".

He says it is vital that lessons are learned from what we have gone through over the past year.

Mr Ross says there is a consultation first about how the inquiry will proceed and he wants to make sure that it answers all the questions the families want to have addressed.

Christine Lavelle from The Sun brings up an issue with accessing PCR tests in some areas and asks how widespread the problem is.

She also asks about a suggestion that the Scottish government wants capacity reduced by 40% at Ibrox this weekend for the Old Firm game which is due to take place with a full house.

The first minister says there was an issue with testing kits at some testing centres and this was due to high demand and rising case numbers. She says these come through the UK government route and they are expecting this to be resolved today with a delivery of supplies.

On capacity in stadia, she says local authorities are in the lead on large events where organisers have to apply for permission for events over 5,000 people. She says she will not pre-empt any decisions on events coming up. She says people can expect that those decisions will be taken "very carefully indeed".

Image source, Getty Images

Joseph Gartly from Bauer asks if the rise in infections in schools might mean a return to home learning and asks if the recommendation by the JCVI to vaccinate under 16s would help to avoid this.

Ms Sturgeon says this is a matter for the JCVI but very much hopes the body will be able to recommend we go further and vaccinate younger cohorts of children and it is for them to weight that up.

Gregor Smith adds that the sharper rise in infection from the younger groups is within 18-19-year-olds and that we had to be careful to track this and encourage these people to take up the vaccination and also to test before going into schools.

Jillian Evans, head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian, tells the BBC Scotland Covid briefing TV programme she agrees with the first minister's assessment that this is a "fragile and pivotal moment" in the pandemic.

"It was a really sobering set off daily statistics today," she says.

"The next few days will be really telling. They will be pretty important in the surveyance of the pandemic."

Channel Four News asks about a "patchy record" of disclosing evidence from the Scottish government and asks if the first minister can guarantee to the families of Covid victims that she will disclose emails, Whatsapps, private emails and that nothing will be off-limits in the inquiry.

Ms Sturgeon says the nature of the public inquiry means she would not have the ability to do so.

She says the Scottish government is further ahead than anyone else in establishing a public inquiry and says that as a leader of a government over the past 18 months, she wants every lesson to be learned so that any future government will have the benefit of that learning.

She says the Scottish government's commitment to this should not be in doubt.

Answering a question from ITV Borders about what point restrictions would be introduced, the first minister says: "I fervently hope we don't have to go backwards and enforce more restrictions, but if we have to do that, we won't shy away from those decisions."

She says that we all have a chance to influence what happens and must remind ourselves the virus is still there and do the things we can do to stop it spreading.

She says if we can get the virus back under control, hopefully we will not have to endure more restrictions.

Chief medical officer Gregor Smith adds that the Borders area is one of the first in which the surge was seen and reiterated that individuals should limit their contacts and look again at interactions.

Image source, Getty Images

The first minister is asked by STV about the waiting times at accident and emergency departments.

The latest statistics show that almost one in four people was not dealt with within the four-hour target, the worst performance since weekly records began six years ago.

Ms Sturgeon says that demand for NHS services, which had been suppressed by restrictions caused by Covid, is now coming to the fore.

"The situation in our NHS is incredibly difficult," she says.

The first minister says one of the ways to get pressure on A&E down is to get primary services such as GPs back to normal.

Ms Sturgeon tells STV's Gordon Chree that she would love to stand up at the podium and tell people the pandemic is over but it is a virus that will do its best to beat us.

"I don't underestimate how difficult this is but nobody can wave a magic wand and make it all go away," she says.

The first minister says the vaccine is shielding us at the moment but the virus is still trying to beat us.

Image source, Getty Images

With some journalists in the room today, the first minster takes her first question from Lynsey Bews from the BBC who asks what impact schools returning and universities returning will have on numbers and the NHS.

She also asks for a timeline on the proposed inquiry.

Ms Sturgeon says the inquiry will be a statutory judge-led inquiry and it will be for the chairman of the inquiry to decide how it operates. She says they may give an indicative timeframe within the terms of reference.

On the possibility of rising cases, she says that there are less hospitalisations currently but says that even if cases are high, a small percentage of that is still a large number of people becoming seriously ill.

Secondly, she says the NHS is trying to return to normal and will launch the NHS Recovery Plan tomorrow, so the margins of tolerance to deal with Covid are smaller than at the start of the pandemic when hospitals were cleared to deal with the virus.

She says it will take less for the NHS to face significant pressures.

The first minister says vaccination has allowed restrictions to be eased but we can't be totally relaxed about this surge in cases.

"If this surge continues and accelerates and we start to see evidence of substantial increase in serious illness, we cannot completely rule out having to reimpose some restrictions," she says.

"We hope not to do that," Ms Sturgeon says.

It will depend on all of us, she says. It is a "fragile and pivotal" moment in the pandemic.

Ms Sturgeon asks for people to continue to take basic measures such as getting vaccinated, take tests, stick to the rules such as wearing face masks and be mindful of physical distancing, unnecessary contacts and ventilation.

The 4,323 new cases reported today is the highest daily figure recorded.

The previous highest level was during the summer wave in early July. Then, the number of cases peaked at 4,234 on 1 July.

The seven-day average of cases is also rising sharply. The peak on 4 July was an average of 3,454 and the average over the past seven days is slightly lower at 3,383.

Nicola Sturgeon says that if this surge continues and accelerates and we see an increase in serious illness, she cannot rule out having to re-impose some restrictions.

She says she hopes not to have to do that and if they do the restrictions will be as limited and proportionate as possible.

She says we are at another "fragile and pivotal moment" in the pandemic.

Image source, Getty Images

"We always knew cases were likely to rise as restrictions eased," the first minister says.

She says that although it was not unexpected, the scale of the increase is still a concern.

Ms Sturgeon says vaccination is making a big difference and that explains why so many of the new cases are in younger people who are less likely to have had both doses of vaccine.

Around half of all new cases are in people under 25.

She says we can't be complacent as young people can still become ill and experience long Covid.