New figures have revealed that 261 people are currently in Tayside and Fife hospitals fighting coronavirus, with 20 of them in intensive care.
The statistics, released by the Scottish Government on Wednesday afternoon, show that a total of 841 people in Courier country have now tested positive for Covid-19 – 586 in Tayside and 255 in the kingdom.
It comes as the Covid-19 tally for the whole of Scotland reached 4,565Â – a rise of 336 from 4,229 in the past 24 hours.
The new figures revealed that 134 people in Tayside and a further 127 in Fife were in hospital with confirmed or suspected cases of the virus as of midnight on Tuesday.
Thirteen of the patients in the kingdom are in intensive care along with seven others in Tayside.
On Tuesday the overall figure for Tayside was 516 and 239 in Fife.
It comes as a further 70 deaths were attributed to coronavirus in Scotland, taking the death toll to 366. It comes as a new method of recording Covid-19 fatalities, which includes cases where Covid-19 is mentioned in the death certificate, came into effect.
Ms Sturgeon also said a further 20 patients had been taken into hospital overnight, taking the total to 1,771, with 210 individuals currently receiving treatment in intensive care.
The number has been calculated using Health Protection Scotland figures which include only people who died within 28 days of testing positive.
A total of 26,226 people in Scotland have now been tested for Covid-19.
