CORONAVIRUS infection levels have risen across all four nations of the UK as people prepare for the bank holiday weekend.
The latest snapshot survey of infections by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that Scotland had the lowest rate across the four nations with around one in 140 having Covid-19 in the week to Friday, August 20.
However, this is a significant rise on the previous week when the figure was one in 200 people and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told a coronavirus briefing earlier today that Covid case numbers have "roughly doubled over the course of the past seven days".
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon announces highest number of Scottish Covid cases in a single day
Northern Ireland had the highest rate in the ONS figures for private households with one in 40 people had the virus in the figures for last week.
The figure for England was around one in 70 people, up from one in 80 the previous week, and around one in 120 people had coronavirus in Wales.
The return of schools in Scotland earlier this month is believed to have contributed to an increase in infections here.
As pupils prepare to return to their desks across the rest of the UK after the summer break there is an expectation that cases will rise, but experts said it will be crucial to observe if that translates to an increase in hospital admissions and deaths.
It is hoped the vaccines will prevent a similar situation to last autumn, with one UK Government adviser saying earlier this week that he is optimistic the “significant wave” of hospital admissions seen then can be avoided.
A newly-published document today saw advisers warn it is “highly likely” there will be exponential increases in coronavirus in pupils after schools open.
Members of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O) advised the Government to plan for the likelihood of high prevalence of the virus in schools by the end of September.
READ MORE: Scottish Government 'actively considering' vaccine passports, says Nicola Sturgeon
There have also been concerns about summer music festivals contributing to a spike, after thousands of cases were suspected to be linked to the Boardmasters festival in Cornwall and hundreds to Latitude Festival in Suffolk.
A number of big gatherings are being held this weekend, including the Reading and Leeds Festivals – where jabs will be offered across the two sites – and the Creamfields in Cheshire.
Despite Scotland's infection rate being the lowest across the UK last week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that the country had recorded its highest number of daily infections today (August 27).
A total of 6835 positive cases were recorded in the latest Scottish Government figures, accounting for 14.2% of the record 50,493 tests carried out yesterday.
The data showed there were also four new deaths of people who had contracted Covid-19 within the previous 28 days.
A total of 479 people were in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 53 on the previous day and an increase of 167 on last Friday. The number of patients in intensive care yesterday saw no change on the day before at 47.
Sturgeon (above) told the coronavirus briefing that being fully vaccinated makes people less likely to fall seriously ill which is why the "high number of new cases that we are seeing has not so far led to the same number of hospitalisations that we saw in previous waves".
She went on: “In the past seven days we have reported more new cases than at any previous time in the pandemic, although I refer back to my point about higher levels of testing, but case numbers have roughly doubled over the course of the past seven days.
“It’s important to point out that case numbers are rising across the UK just now, but after a period of slower increases in Scotland the rise here is particularly sharp at the moment.
“That is possibly, at least in part, a reflection of the fact that our schools return earlier, with the increased interactions that come with that, and although vaccination has significantly weakened the link between a high volume of new cases and serious harm to health it hasn’t completely broken that link.
“So even if a much smaller proportion of people who get Covid now need to go to hospital, which is the case thankfully, basic arithmetic tells us that a small percentage of a large number is still going to be a significant number of people and indeed in recent days we have seen an increase of the number of people in hospital."
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