NICOLA Sturgeon has said she is willing to do whatever it takes to keep schools open amid a surge in cases of the Omicron Covid variant.

The First Minister said that she may ask adults to do more to stop the spread of the new variant as she stated Omicron could overtake Delta and become the dominant strain in Scotland in "days, not weeks".

An evidence paper published by the Scottish Government also suggested cases could reach as many as 25,000 every day by December 20, if the worst possible scenario comes to pass.

There are now 110 confirmed Omicron cases in Scotland, compared to 10 days ago when there were only nine confirmed positive cases.

The First Minister explicitly said further restrictions could not be ruled out during a coronavirus briefing on Friday, but despite the concerns over the new variant she pledged to do all she could to keep children in schools.

READ MORE: Omicron could cause 'tsunami of infections' Nicola Sturgeon has warned

“I can’t stand here and say that no class will be disrupted and no school will have periods of disruption – what I’m talking about here is what we had before, which is blanket schools are closed,” she said.

“Nobody wants that. I will bust a gut and do whatever – even if people hate me for asking adults to do more than they want to do – to keep schools open in that general sense.

“Of course, if there are outbreaks of infections in schools then there needs to be a response to that, but I’m very clear about the importance of minimising the disruption to children’s education.”

If some classes are asked to self-isolate as a result of an outbreak, that would serve to ensure the rest of the school can stay open, the First Minister added.

READ MORE: Emergency four-nations Cobra meeting to discuss Omicron variant response

At the onset of the pandemic, schools across Scotland and the rest of the UK closed to all but the children of key workers and those who were deemed to be vulnerable.

During the briefing, Sturgeon also warned that with the "greater and faster transmissibility" of Omicron, there could potentially be a "tsunami of infections" in the coming weeks. 

She said that household contact of positive Covid cases will have to self-isolate regardless of returning a negative test.

You can watch the First Minister's full Covid briefing below

Scotland recorded 19 coronavirus deaths and 5018 new cases in the past 24 hours.

The deaths - among those who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – bring the total under the daily measure to 9707.

There were 573 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down five on the day before. Of these people, 40 were in intensive care, up by one.

A total of 4,359,959 people have received their first dose of a Covid vaccination, 3,969,494 have received their second dose, and 2,040,070 have received a third dose or booster.