NICOLA Sturgeon has said that the planned dates for easing Covid restrictions in Scotland are “not set in stone”.

The First Minister admitted that cases are “much higher than we want them to be” – adding that the Scottish Government will be looking closely at the data before confirming any changes.

The country is scheduled to move to Level 0 on July 19 – the same day as all restrictions are being eased in England.

Initial plans also have almost all restrictions, potentially apart from face coverings, being dropped on August 9.

Ms Sturgeon will confirm any changes to a recalled Scottish Parliament on July 13.

READ MORE: Two Scottish hospitals confirm rare ‘Code Black’ alert amid rising Covid cases

She told the BBC: "We are looking at this very carefully. My biggest concern right now is that even though we are seeing a weakening of the link between cases and hospitalisations, if we have a high number of cases even a lower proportion of those cases ending up in hospital can put pressure on our NHS."

She added that restrictions will eventually be eased as a result of the vaccination programme, but said this must be done "at a sensible pace".

Asked by the BBC if this meant the planned dates outof lockdown were not set in stone, she replied: "Nothing, against a global pandemic of an infectious virus that has got more infectious and transmissible with the Delta variant, can be set in stone.

"I want as much as everybody does the certainty of 'by this date we will be free of everything and there will no longer be any restrictions'.

"Every part of me wants that and every part of me believes we are on a journey towards that and heading in that direction.

"But to set dates in stone while we still face that virus would not in my view be responsible. My job is to take hard decisions that get us as safely as possible to that end point."

The comments come as opposition leaders claimed Scotland’s contact tracing system is failing to meet “basic international standards”,  as the latest figures showed its performance to be below World Health Organisation (WHO) levels.

With the number of coronavirus cases rising, the Test and Protect contact tracing system set up to try to contain the spread of the virus has been coming under increasing pressure.

On Friday, Ms Sturgeon insisted the system was still meeting the WHO (World Health Organisation) target of having 80% of cases “dealt with, contact tracing done and in quarantine within 72 hours”.

But in the week ending July 4, only 73.1% of cases were closed by Test and Protect within the three-day target time, according to new Public Health Scotland figures.

These also showed that in the last seven days just 8.9% of those who tested positive were interviewed by someone within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, 30.2% were spoken to within 24 to 48 hours, with 29.4% contacted within 48 to 72 hours.

However, almost one in three people (31.1%) were only interviewed after more than 72 hours.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie hit out: “Test and Protect has been engulfed by this latest wave of the virus. It is not meeting basic international standards.”

The Lib Dem added: “People have sacrificed a huge amount to buy the Government time. This system should be able to withstand high case rates by now.

“Instead, some tracing activities have been turned off altogether and people are routinely waiting days for Test and Protect to show up.

“It’s evidence that SNP ministers once again just weren’t prepared and have lost control of the virus.”

Mr Rennie demanded: “We need to see Test and Protect reinforced, the vaccine rollout intensified and an end to the dithering around the current unsustainable self-isolation system which is proving a big challenge for key services and workers.”

Meanwhile, Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “It’s clear that the SNP has lost control of the pandemic.

“Test and Trace is in disarray and cases are spiralling. We cannot have the people of Scotland put in danger due to the failure of the SNP.

“The heroic efforts of our NHS and testing staff are being undermined by the incompetence of the SNP.

“It’s time the SNP faced up to the scale of their failure and took action to mitigate the damage they have already caused.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Test and Protect system has continued to operate well as case numbers have increased in recent weeks.

“Given rising case numbers, the system has been contacting unprecedented numbers of people.

“As we announced last week, we are using a variety of methods to contact people, including using digital methods like SMS messages for lower risk cases and prioritising calls for higher risk cases.

“These changes will ensure that people are contact traced, and begin isolation, as quickly as possible.

“The majority of people comply when asked to self-isolate and we are thankful for the important role they continue to play in stopping transmission of Covid-19. The latest evidence from research suggests 74% of community-based positive cases and their close contacts isolated entirely in line with the self-isolation guidance.”

Latest figures show Scotland has recorded five deaths of coronavirus patients in the past 24 hours and 3,799 new cases, according to the latest data.

The death toll under this daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 7,740.

Figures published by the Scottish Government indicate the daily test positivity rate is 10.0%, down from 10.2% the previous day.

A total of 387 people were in hospital on Tuesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 41 in 24 hours, with 34 patients in intensive care, up two.

So far, 3,890,176 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 2,808,902 have received their second dose.