Five cases of a new strain of covid have been reported in Scotland.
The Arcturus variant is spreading across the globe, and has cost the five lives in UK to date, none of them north of border.
According to the latest briefing from the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA), there are at least 135 cases of Arcturus, Omicron XBB.1.16, with 120 recorded in England, reports the Mirror.
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Wales currently have eight cases and Northern Ireland have two.
The new strain is present in at least 28 countries, with the majority of those cases, over 2,000, in India.
Health chiefs warn that there is no evidence to suggest the new variant is more severe than past ones, however, there are symptoms not previously seen in other covid strains.
Reports from doctors in India, where the strain is rife, have said they are seeing more children and adolescents with the variant presenting with conjunctivitis - or pink eye.
Dr Michael Chang, a paediatric infections diseases expert at UTHealth Houston and Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, told Yagoo News there isn't enough evidence to prove the new covid variant is causing conjunctivitis.
"We don't have the context of whether they're seeing that in some of the regions in India," he said.
"We know their covid cases are going up, and presumably, these kids are testing positive for covid, but we don't know if they're testing positive for anything else either."
The medical expert explained that there are other diseases which can cause pink eye including adenovirus which is common during the spring and summer time.
"We are seeing adenovirus circulating," he said, "so even if covid cases go up, unless you're doing testing for both covid and adenovirus, which most people aren't... it may be difficult [to determine] what's causing your pink eye."
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