Coronavirus in Scotland LIVE as surge in new cases leaves Christmas in doubt

Welcome to Edinburgh Live’s coronavirus LIVE blog for Tuesday 15 September. We’ll be bringing you all the latest COVID-19 updates throughout the day from Edinburgh and beyond.

Nicola Sturgeon raised serious concerns with the backlog in test results yesterday which she said was affecting how timeously the government could report the daily increase in cases.

It came as new public health rules limiting the number of people who could gather socially to six people from no more than two households.

Police Scotland reported over the weekend that it was forced to break up over 400 house parties despite the lockdown restrictions.

The First Minister used her daily briefing to warn that the continued increase of cases, treble what was seen a matter of weeks ago, was “unsustainable”.

Meanwhile, one of the government’s key virus advisers warned that the only certainty over the next six months would be more uncertainty, including around whether the traditional Christmas festivities could go ahead as normal.

To keep up to date with all of the latest coronavirus news, you can follow our daily live blog below.