Coronavirus cases in Ayrshire have surged in the past week with the region seeing an increase of 100 per cent on the previous week.

All three Ayrshire council areas have seen massive increases to the number of people confirmed infected with the virus.

East Ayrshire remains the hardest hit of the Ayrshire local authority areas with 447 cases recorded from December 27 - January 02. Per 100,000 people that is 366.4 cases.

We reported last week how high per 100,000 cases in East Ayrshire led to it being dubbed the covid capital of Scotland. That was with a weekly caseload of 236 (from December 20-26).

Figures in North Ayrshire jumped up from 208 cases in one week to 433 last week or 321.4 cases per 100,000 of the population.

South Ayrshire, the least affected of all three, climbed from 114 to 241, that's 214 per 100,000.

Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald: The latest figures.The latest figures.

It comes as the Scottish Government announced a new full lockdown, which came into effect from 12am this morning (January 5).

The new lockdown is in response to the rising case numbers, surging because of the new more easily-transmissable variant of the virus.

The first minister, in her first press conference of the new year earlier today, said that she believed the current situation is more serious than it has been "at any time since the spring".

Vaccines are on the way, more than 100,000 people have already been innoculated, and Nicola Sturgeon has likened the current task of vaccinating as a race. The hope being to get as many people vaccinated as possible before COVID-19 claims more lives.

Her key message is to stay at home, saying it will help slow the virus' spread: "The new variant means that slowing it down is more difficult and to achieve that takes more stricter restrictions."