After another rise in people testing positive, it is believed that Scotland still has the highest Covid rate in Britain.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), one in seventeen people in Scotland was tested positive for the virus in the week ending September 17.
This was only a slight increase on the one in 18 reported last week.
Last week, the rate in England was 1 in 25. In Wales it was 1 in 20 and in Northern Ireland it was 1 in 19.
Covid cases are increasing in the UK due to the Omicron strain's new BA.4/BA.5 variants.
Although they aren't thought to be any more dangerous than other forms of Covid, they seem to be spreading faster.
According to the ONS, 312,800 people in Scotland were infected with the virus last week. This is the highest number since April.
This is an increase of 288,200 from the previous week and the fifth consecutive week that the virus-infected people have increased.
There are signs that the virus could be slowing down and the infection rate may have reached a plateau.
According to the ONS data, infections in Scotland increased slower than other UK countries over the past week. Experts believe this could indicate that they will soon fall.
Sarah Crofts is a member of the ONS's Covid-19 infected survey. She said that Scotland continues to have the highest rate of infection, but it has been increasing at a slower pace than other UK countries.
"We will continue to monitor data to determine if the recent increase in Scotland is slowing down."
To estimate the amount of virus present, the ONS statistics are compiled by testing thousands upon thousands of UK residents - regardless of whether they have symptoms.
The largest Scottish health board stated that 945 employees are currently unemployed due to Covid.
The chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde stated that the situation was made worse by holidaymakers and that the board had to deal with "less than optimal staffing levels".
There are currently 461 Covid patients being treated at the hospitals of the health board. This number is expected to rise significantly in the next fortnight.
However, no scheduled appointments or surgeries will be cancelled at this time.
The 38,000-strong health board said that a recruitment campaign was underway to increase numbers.
It stated that procedures are in place to ensure patient safety is addressed and escalated, and that frontline staff have access mental health and peer support programs.
Prof Linda Bauld, a Scottish government advisor, stated earlier this week that she believes the overall picture will improve over the next few weeks.
Prof Bauld stated that he believed things would settle down. This is what we see in Portugal.
"The main concern of many people at the moment is the disruption caused by having so many people out of work, even in the NHS."
The National Records of Scotland released separate figures on Thursday showing that over 15,015 people died from Covid since the pandemic started. This comes after another 61 deaths were recorded in the same week.
