First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "I will give a short update on today's figures. 1,656 positive cases were reported yesterday, which is 7.5% of all tests carried out. The total number of cases therefore is now 166,583."

NS: "As of yesterday, 309,909 people had received their first dose of vaccine. There are currently 2,003 people in hospital, which is 14 more than yesterday, and 156 people in intensive care, which is 6 more than yesterday."
NS: "I very much regret to report that, in the past 24 hours, a further 92 deaths were registered of patients who first tested positive over the previous 28 days and the total number of people who have died under that daily measurement is 5,468."
NS: "National Records of Scotland has also just published its weekly update. That, of course, includes cases where Covid is a suspected or contributory cause of death, even if it hasn't been confirmed through a test."
NS: "Today's update shows that, by last Sunday, the total number of registered deaths linked to Covid under the wider definition was 7,448. 368 of those deaths were registered in the most recent week, which is 23 fewer than in the week before that."
NS: "240 of last week's deaths took place in hospital, 97 in care homes, 4 in a different institutional setting and 27 occurred at home or in another non-institutional setting."
NS: "Of course, every one of these deaths is a source of heartbreak to loved ones and so, again, I send my condolences to everybody who is grieving."
NS: "The figures I've reported today demonstrate the seriousness of the situation we continue to face. As a result of the lockdown restrictions, as I reported to Parliament yesterday, case numbers appear to have stabilised and they may even be declining."
NS: "But, as we see again today, they remain too high. Hospital admissions are 30% higher now than at the peak of the first wave last April, and while admissions to intensive care are below the first wave peak they have almost doubled since the turn of the year."
NS: "All of this means that our NHS is under severe pressure, and given the number of new cases over the past couple of weeks, that pressure is almost certain to increase."
NS: "It's therefore vital that we do everything we can to protect our NHS by slowing the spread of the virus and bringing case numbers down. That's why we confirmed yesterday that lockdown restrictions will remain in place until at least the middle of February..."
NS: "..and it's why it's so important that all of us continue to comply with them. Put simply, that means we need to stay home."
NS: "We should only leave home for essential purposes, such as caring responsibilities, essential shopping, work that can't be done from home and essential exercise."
NS: "We should not have people from other households into our houses, and we should not go into theirs."
NS: "We should all work from home if we possibly can and on any occasion where we are required to leave home we should remember FACTS."
NS: "Face coverings, when doing essential shopping or out for other reasons. Avoid places that are busy. Clean hands and surfaces. Use two-metre distancing if you're with somebody from another household. And self-isolate and get tested if you have symptoms."
NS: "Fundamentally, though, the best means of keeping ourselves safe right now is to stay at home as much as possible."
NS: "So please, stay at home, protect the NHS, and save lives."

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Watch the entire discussion if you have the time to do so. But if not, please make sure to watch Edhem Eldem summarizing ~150 years of democracy in Turkey in 6 minutes (starting on 57'). And if you can't watch it, fear not; I've transcribed it for you (as public service). Thread:


"Let me start by saying that I am a historian, I see dead people. But more seriously, I am constantly torn between the temptation to see patterns developing over time, and the fear of hasty generalizations and anachronistic comparisons. 1/n

"Nevertheless, the present situation forces me to explore the possible historical dimensions of the problem we're facing today. 2/n

"(...)I intend to go further back in time and widen the angle in order to focus on the confusion I  believe exists between the notions of 'state', 'government', and 'public institutions' in Turkey. 3/n

"In the summer of 1876, that's a historical quote, as Midhat Pasa was trying to draft a constitution, Edhem Pasa wrote to Saffet Pasa, and I quote in Turkish, 'Bize Konstitusyon degil enstitusyon lazim' ('It is not a constitution we need but institutions'). 4/n

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