Jason Leitch has urged Scots to ‘be careful’ after testing positive for Covid for the first time during the pandemic.
Scotland’s National Clinical Director shared a photo of his positive test for the virus in a tweet sent out this afternoon.
The 53-year-old said he will now follow Scottish Government guidance and stay at home until his symptoms subside.
News of his positive test comes amid claims of a new wave of the virus in Scotland due to the emergence of BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants.
Mr Leitch wrote: “Well, it finally got me for the first time. Global and Scottish cases are rising. Be careful everyone.
“I’ll be following the recommended guidance and hoping for a short, easy course.
“I’m very glad I’m fully vaccinated.”
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has estimated that around 176,900 Scots contracted the virus in the week ending June 11 - which equates to one in 30 people.
This figure is a rise from the 124,100 estimated to have become infected with Covid in the week previous.
It is a second week in a row where estimates on the number of new infections has risen in Scotland.
People requiring hospital treatment for Covid has also risen to 748 as of June 12 - which is a rise on the 716 recorded in the previous week.
Professor Linda Bauld, a professor in Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, described the rise in the number of people in hospital as ‘small but not significant’.
She said that the vaccines are working well in the vast majority of people and are making the difference between the risk from infection and the risk from severe disease.
Professor Bauld told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme earlier this week: "I think it's pretty clear to me from some of the data we've seen that we are certainly in another wave of infection, if not already it will be soon and that certainly seems to be the case in a number of countries, and that is not a big surprise because we did anticipate we would have a rising level of infections every three or four months potentially, that's what international colleagues have said.
"It might be surprising to people though because it's the summer, and they're used to hearing from us (that) the weather is better so people are more outside and therefore we reduce the risks through our behaviour.
"That's true, but what we've got is Omicron and a different type of it, BA.4 and 5 - there's these Omicron sub-lineages which seem to be rising in number in the UK and I think that's part of the explanation why we're beginning to see more cases , and we have seen a small but not significant rise in the number of people in hospital as well."
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