Nicola Sturgeon is set to address the Scottish Parliament today on the latest coronavirus situation across the country.
The First Minister will give her first statement on the covid pandemic for a number of weeks as cases remain high in Scotland.
During the update to MSPs the SNP leader is expected to announce the end to all restrictions in Scotland, which includes the scrapping of the requirement to wear face coverings.
Scotland will fall in line with England on March 21 if Sturgeon and her cabinet agrees to the ending of restrictions.
Cases of the deadly virus have shot up since the start of the month due to the relaxation of rules across the country.
Ahead of the statement Sir Gregor Smith, the chief medical officer, urged a "cautious approach" on the pandemic going forward.
He said: "I think that a cautious approach at this point in time is probably the right approach, and we're already seeing the public adopting those additional protections."
"We've been keeping a close eye on these for the last three weeks, and clearly when you see cases begin to increase like this it does give you a little bit of concern."
Smith also said hospital occupancy began to rise around February 14.
He added: "We're seeing more older population becoming impacted on this occasion, and that's leading to some longer lengths of stay, which is driving occupancy up as well."
Sir Gregor said there are "some hopeful signs" the hospital admission rate "has begun to kind of top out just a little bit over the course of the latter end of last week".
What time is the statement?
The First Minister is expected to get to her feet in the Holyrood chamber at around 2.20pm.
She will deliver a statement for around 10 minutes and will then take questions from opposition leaders as well as MSPs for all sides of the parliament for about 20 minutes.
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