NS: "Every single death from this virus is a tragedy and my thoughts are with the family and friends of all those who have lost their lives."

NS: "We intend to do a briefing for journalists over the next couple of days specifically focused on death reporting to ensure any questions about these changes can be addressed, and the basis of reporting is fully understood."

NS: "Today, Health Protection Scotland is publishing revised guidance on how PPE should be used. It is intended to build confidence in the health and social care workforce that they are being properly protected."

NS: "I want to summarise the testing situation in Scotland cover the ways we are working to rapidly enhance testing capacity. It might be helpful to give more context on what testing can and cannot achieve."

NS: "At the moment all NHS Covid-19 testing is PCR testing. They are effective at identifying people who have Covid-19 at the time they have symptoms, but cannot reliably detect the virus at the incubation period and cannot confirm if the person has had it once they recover."

NS: "In future, we also hope to be able to offer what is called antibody testing, which would indicate if the person has had the infection."

NS: "We have three priorities for the PCR testing that we do have available. We need to test those who are most seriously ill to support the care they get."

NS: "Secondly, we need to undertake testing so frontline health and social care staff who have symptoms but not the virus can return to work if that is appropriate."

NS: "However when a healthcare worker is self-isolating because a family member has symptoms but they don't have symptoms, then testing the healthcare worker would not be effective. This strand of testing will involve testing family members of healthcare workers."

NS: "If they don't have the virus the healthcare worker can go back to work. So far we've tested a total of 3,400 NHS workers or family members, and we expect that figure to rise considerably in the days to come."

NS: "Thirdly, we need to use testing to assess, monitor and report on the spread of the virus across the country. Surveillance testing. That is similar to what we do for flu, every year during the flu season."

NS: "To enable us to test in these priority areas, rapid increases in testing capacity are taking place. When this outbreak first started we were able to test around 390 samples a day. "

NS: "That capacity has already increased to up to 1900 tests a day and we are building towards being able to carry out at least 3,500 tests a day by the end of April at the latest."

NS: "Second issue I want to address is the procurement of tests and capacity. The capacity we're building up is within Scotland's NHS. We continue to look at ways to expand that capacity ourselves and with other organisations..."

NS: "...and we're also taking part in four country initiatives with the rest of the UK which will further add to that capacity. But these are in addition to, not instead of building our own capacity in NHS Scotland."

NS: "We are very grateful to every organisation that has offered laboratory space but we need to ensure testing is done in a way which is safe and meets high quality standards so we can be confident in the results."

NS: "That's why there are important due diligence issues which must be addressed before any new laboratory can be used, and why National Services Scotland has prioritised the expansion of NHS capacity but are engaging with laboratories better placed to meet these criteria."

NS: "I want to close by once again acknowledging the extraordinary contribution of our health and social care workforce. This evening, I, along with people across the country, will again take the time to applaud the fantastic work they're doing."

NS: "As a further show of appreciation, St Andrew's House will light up in blue. That will happen this evening and every subsequent Thursday in the weeks ahead. It's one small way of expressing our respect and deep gratitude for those on the front line."

NS: "The single most important way we can show support for health and social care workers is by staying at home."

NS: "This, unfortunately, is not a quick fix. We all want this phase of our lives to be over as quickly as possible. But much as I'd like to stand here and say otherwise, it is unlikely this will be in just a few weeks. We are in this for the long haul."

NS: "Hopefully, as we gather more hard data on how the virus is spreading and what impact these lockdown measures are having, we can be more precise about when we will start to get back to normal. We will share as much of that analysis as we can."

NS: "But I want at every stage to be giving you our most informed analysis, rather than just telling people what we all want to hear and then having to downgrade that later. Please, I know how tough this is, but please, please, stick with it. You are helping us to save lives."

NS: "Let me again thank everyone across the country who is playing their part. Your efforts will continue to be really vital in the weeks ahead as we fight this battle against Coronavirus. Thank you very much indeed."