Scotland’s rules on face coverings in shops and on public transport will remain in place until April due to a rise in cases of Covid-19.

All other restrictions on businesses and services are to move from legal requirement to guidance from 21 March.

But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it would be “prudent” to keep mask rules in place due to a spike in cases.

These will be reviewed again in two weeks, and are likely to be converted to guidance by 4 April.

Ms Sturgeon said a sharp rise in infections was putting “significant pressure on hospital capacity”, but that vaccines were still giving people good protection.

She also told MSPs that mass testing will be wound down in April, with routine testing and contact tracing to end by May.

The average number of new cases reported each day in Scotland is more than 12,000, up from an average of 6,900 per day three weeks ago.

There has also been a rise in the number of people in hospital with Covid-19, from 1,060 three weeks ago to 1,996 today.

Ms Sturgeon said the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron was now the dominant strain of the virus in Scotland, accounting for more than 80% of cases – adding that while it spreads much more quickly, there is no evidence it causes more severe illness than previous variants.

Commenting on the First Minister’s Covid-19 update to the Scottish Parliament, Dr Liz Cameron CBE, Chief Executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce said:

“Scottish businesses were looking forward to returning to greater normality and the decision to delay the removal of all remaining Covid-19 restrictions will come as a bitter disappointment.

“Further delay will put Scotland’s recovery into reverse gear again, create confusion, dent business confidence, putting the buffers on economic growth.

“The Scottish Government’s strategic framework recognises that the success of the vaccine rollout minimises the risk of serious illness and should enable Scotland’s businesses and individuals to begin living and working with increasingly normality alongside the virus.

“Businesses cannot continue to operate with the start-stop lever being pulled just weeks apart, with no clear confirmation as to what the triggers driving decision making are.

“Businesses have invested millions throughout the course of the pandemic to keep their customers and employees safe and with Scotland falling behind other parts of the UK when it comes to the removal of restrictions, putting trust back in individuals and businesses to manage the health and safety of workplace environments and behave sensibly is becoming increasingly overdue.

“The Scottish Government must commit to the removal of all remaining restrictions as soon as possible whilst providing greater detail on what triggers sit behind the decision-making process to protect consumer and business confidence in the meantime.”