Latest update: Aberdeen Covid-19 cluster numbers continue to rise
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The First Minister has today condemned the actions of Aberdeen footballers as Saturday's match against St Johnstone is called off.
Announcing the latest statistics for Scotland as a whole, there were a further 43 positive cases yesterday taking the national total to 18,890.
27 of those cases are in Grampian but it is not clear on how many are connected to the cluster, while a further five were noted in Glasgow.
Some 262 people are in hospital while four remain in ICU and again there were no noted deaths.
The First Minister said: "As of now 101 cases are confirmed as part of cluster, that is an increas of 22 on yesterday and 313 close contacts have been identified and followed up, again I expect that this will rise
"It was also confirmed yesterday that two players from Aberdeen Football Club are amongst those who tested positive
"In addition a further six players have been identified as being in close proximity with one of those individuals and they are all self isolating.
"It is now clear that all eight of these players visited a bar in Aberdeen on Saturday night.
"In doing so they blatantly broke the rules that had been agreed between the SFA the SPFL and the Scottish Government and which to put it mildly is completely unacceptable.
"This morning the Scottish Government convened a meeting between the SFA and the SPFL and following those discussion the football authorities have confirmed that the game between Aberdeen and St Johnstone will not go ahead.
"I think that is the right decision."
She continued: "We expect members of the public to behave in a highly cautionary manner right now and when a football club ends up with players infected with Covid-19, and lets remember this is not through bad luck but be breaches of the rules, we cannot take even a small risk that they then spread the infection to other parts of the country.
"The Scottish Government will also contact all clubs to emphasise the importance of compliance.
"Football has been given the go-ahead on the strict condition that clubs and players abide by the guidance that has been agreed.
"If they don’t do that they put at risk the return of the professional game, so I welcome Aberdeen’s statement that they have reminded players of their obligations.
"Footballers are role models and they should behave accordingly.
"It is also important to remind the club and indeed all clubs of the obligation that have to ensure that their players are behaving responsibly and in line with guidance.
She stressed: "To say that this incident is deeply regrettable is an understatement but it also underlines an important point.
"Any time one of us fails to abide by the rules we put others at risk."
