Nicola Sturgeon has announced five more confirmed cases of coronavirus in Scotland, taking the total to 23.

The First Minister said there is an “increasing inevitability” of a significant Covid-19 outbreak across the UK.

She said changes to the delay phase of the Scottish Government’s plans could include advising people with more mild symptoms to stay at home.

Coronavirus
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon took part in the UK Government;s Cobra meeting earlier on Monday (Jane Barlow/PA)

All those diagnosed in Scotland are traceable to travel or to other confirmed cases and are not seriously unwell, she added.

She said Scotland “may be a few days behind” some other parts of the UK in severity “but over time I expect that to flatten out”.

Ms Sturgeon was speaking at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh after taking part in the UK Government’s Cobra meeting and before chairing the Scottish Government’s Resilience Committee.

Speaking afterwards, she said: “Right now, if you have serious flu-like symptoms or respiratory illness your GP, or common sense, would tell you to stay at home and not go to work.

“Over the next few couple of weeks that’s the kind of advice that we might give to people with milder symptoms because by then it may be more than likely that people with milder symptoms have coronavirus.

“We will continue to take these decisions in an orderly way and give people as much advance notice as possible.”

She added: “The advice we have right now, but this will continue to be under review, is that closing schools or cancelling large scale events would not have an appreciable impact on slowing down the spread of the virus.”

A total of 2,078 people have been tested in Scotland , with two new additional Covid-19 cases in both Shetland and Lothian and the remaining additional case in Lanarkshire.

Cases have also been reported in the Tayside, Ayrshire and Arran, Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Grampian and Fife health board areas.

Earlier, it was confirmed one person at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) Lanarkshire campus in Hamilton has tested positive for coronavirus.

In a joint statement, UWS and NHS Lanarkshire said: “NHS public health officials have notified the university that an individual at the Lanarkshire Campus has tested positive for coronavirus.

“The individual is being treated in hospital and is giving no cause for concern.

“As a university community we wish them a swift and full recovery.

“The person concerned had limited contact with a small group of individuals at the university.

“All have been contacted, are well and have no symptoms.”

They said the risk of contracting the virus from the patient is “extremely low” and UWS campuses remain open and students and staff have been asked to attend as normal.

The university said it continues to follow all necessary infection, prevention and precautions in line with public health guidance.

The number of confirmed cases of the virus in the UK reached 319 on Monday afternoon, after 24,641  people had been tested.