Nicola Sturgeon has provided an update on coronavirus lockdown restrictions in Scotland.

The First Minister, joined by chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith and national clinical director Jason Leitch, addressed the nation on some key changes in the coming days.

Nicola Sturgeon said that "because of the progress we've made - both in suppression and vaccination" she was able to confirm the easing of some restrictions in coming days

From a change in the rules to positive signs in the daily figures, we've pulled together the important bits of information you need to know.

Here are the 5 key points from today's announcement

‘Stay at home’ 

From Friday, April 2, the “stay at home” order in Scotland will be lifted and replaced with a request for people to “stay local”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “The stay at home rule is being replaced for the next three weeks at least with a requirement to stay local.

“That means the current travel restrictions, which prevent non-essential travel outside your own local authority area, will remain in place for another three weeks.

“I fully understand how frustrating that is for everybody – I share that frustration – like many of you, my family live in a different local authority to the one I live in, and so like anyone with loved ones in a different part of the country, I desperately want to see them in person.”

Hairdressers and some retail

Further easing of restrictions in Scotland will go ahead from Monday, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.

Barbers and hairdressers will be allowed to reopen, along with more freedoms for non-essential retail and an increase in students in college returning to in-person teaching for practical subjects.

Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald: Hairdresser

The First Minister announced the change earlier this month, but confirmed it would go ahead at the coronavirus briefing on Tuesday.

Shops will be allowed to open for click and collect services, along with homeware shops and garden centres.

The First Minister added: “We don’t want big crowds at these stores, so although they open from Monday, think about whether you really need to visit on Monday or if you’re able to wait until later in the week.”

Figures in the right direction

we're also seeing, and have seen over the past two or three months, progress in terms of the suppression of the virus."

We're now averaging 539 new cases per day. That is a decline of more than 3 quarters since early January. The number of deaths from Covid has fallen even more sharply than that, which is likely to be an effect of the vaccination programme.

The number of deaths is down by more than 80% in the past two months. As you can see from the figures we've been reporting in recent days, the number of people in hospital and receiving intensive care is also reducing."

However, First Minister said at the coronavirus briefing people should still be “hyper-vigilant”.

“There are still no grounds for complacency,” she said.

“In fact, it is really important right now that while the vaccination programme continues to be rolled out, that all of us remain hyper-vigilant in how we’re going about our daily lives.”

The number of new cases is now “plateauing”, the First Minister said, after having consistently dropped throughout January and February.

Vaccine news

Scotland’s vaccine rollout has been “better than we could have dared hope for”, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

As of Tuesday morning, almost 2.5 million people had received their first dose of the vaccine, while almost 340,000 people have been given a second dose.

She said: “These figures confirm the very good progress in the last three months.

“The progress in the vaccination programme is, if anything, better than we could have dared hope for back at the turn of the year.”

The First Minister said that virtually everybody in the over-65 age group has now received a first dose of the vaccine.

She added that 98% of 60 to 64-year-olds have had the vaccine, 81% of 55 to 59-year-olds, and 57% of 50 to 54-year-olds.

The latest cases:

Scotland has recorded 12 deaths from coronavirus and 411 positive tests in the past 24 hours, Ms Sturgeon said.

It brings the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 7,596.

Giving a Covid-19 update, the First Minister said 217,890 people have now tested positive in Scotland, up from 217,479 the previous day.

The daily test positivity rate is 2.8%, down from 3.2%.

Of the new cases, 109 are in Lothian, 94 in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and 76 in Lanarkshire.

There are 250 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, down nine in 24 hours, and 23 patients are in intensive care, up one.