Public health expert says Scotland is on the 'home stretch' with the coronavirus pandemic

One of Scotland's top public health experts says the country is on the "home stretch" with the coronavirus pandemic, despite the ongoing presence of Covid-19.

Professor Linda Bauld from the University of Edinburgh has been giving her thoughts ahead of the Prime Minister setting out a plan for England to live with the virus.

She says that the pandemic has been "transformed" thanks to coronavirus vaccines and treatments, adding that it can nearly be certainly recognised that Scotland won't be returning to lockdowns like what was seen in early 2020 and a year ago, but that the country won't mirror England's approach to living with coronavirus in the future.

Boris Johnson will address the House of Commons this afternoon, while the First Minister will give her latest update to the Scottish Parliament tomorrow afternoon.

Nicola Sturgeon will address Holyrood after the PM talks at the UK Parliament in Westminster.

It comes nearly two years after the World Health Organization declared coronavirus as a pandemic.

As of this lunchtime, nearly 140 million coronavirus vaccinations have bee made across the UK, according to the UK Government's website.

That includes more than 52.5 million first doses, nearly 49 million second doses and nearly 38 million third doses.

The Scottish Government's website says that in Scotland nearly 12 million vaccines have been given, with more than 4.4 million people have had a first dose north of the border while more than 4.1 million have had a second dose and nearly 3.4 million having had a third dose.

Meanwhile, despite progress with dealing with the pandemic, the Scottish Government's website also says that an estimated one in 25 people north of the border have recently tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Office for National Statistics Covid-19 Infection Survey for the week covering between 30 January and 5 February.

Anas Hassan has had a chat with Professor Bauld to discuss the state of the pandemic at the moment: