Scotland's national clinical director says he's hopeful school pupils can return to class as normal in the New Year

The national clinical director for Scotland says he is hopeful that school pupils can return to the classroom as normal in the New Year.

Professor Jason Leitch has been expressing his hopes on the week that students are expected to start their Christmas holidays across the country.

Nearly a year ago, pupils nationwide had to start their first term after the winter break by learning from home.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is scheduled to provide an update on the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in Scotland to the Scottish Parliament tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, you can watch Anas Hassan's interview with Professor Jason Leitch above, where he answered a variety of questions in relation to the ongoing pandemic and concerns about the Omicron variant of the virus.

Image from Scottish Government (Flickr) released under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)