Nicola Sturgeon has announced the Government's next stage of lockdown easing this afternoon.

The First Minister made the announcement during a live TV address, and confirmed that Scotland will move beyond the Level 0 restrictions from Monday, August 9.

Ms Sturgeon gave the news as vaccination figures continue to rise and hospitalisation rates continue to fall, as they have over the past few weeks.

She confirm that no venues will be legally required to close from August 9, and also confirms a lifting on social distancing limits, changes which she says are "significant and hard earned".

Certain baseline measures will remain in place, including the wearing of face masks.

Ms Sturgeon said: "The move beyond level 0 will entail the lifting of most of the remaining legally imposed restrictions - most notably, on physical distancing and limits to the size of social gatherings.

"It also means that from August 9, no venues will be legally required to close.

"It will continue to be the law, subject to existing exemptions, that face coverings must be worn in all the same indoor settings as is the case now.

"We will keep this under review, but my expectation is that face coverings are likely to be mandated in law for some time to come.

"Second, Test & Protect will continue to contact-trace positive cases."

The Scottish Government website states the following measures are to stay in place beyond level 0: 

- Good hand hygiene and surface cleaning.

- Continued promotion of good ventilation.

- Requirement for face coverings in certain settings (e.g. public transport, retail).

- Continued compliance with Test and Protect, including self-isolation when necessary.

- Ongoing need for outbreak management capability, including active surveillance.

- The encouragement of a greater degree of working from home than was the case before Covid-19.

There 1,016 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, with 13,704 new tests for Covid that reported results. Of those, 8.1% were positive.

There were nine new reported deaths of people who have tested positive, while 61 people were in intensive care and 406 people were in hospital.