All roads lead to Friday’s big announcement of the new Scottish tiered restriction system.

Here’s what we learned TODAY Thursday:

• A further 1,712 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of positive cases in Scotland to 52,615.
• The biggest increases were in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (584), NHS Lanarkshire (457), NHS Lothian (192) and NHS Ayrshire and Arran (151).
• A further 17 people who tested positive have died, taking the total by that measure to 2,670 deaths in Scotland.
• The R number in Scotland remains above 1.0 and may be as high as 1.5.
• £2m of funding has been made available to help the struggling residential outdoor education sector.
• Nicola Sturgeon, pictured right,  wants to increase Scotland’s testing capacity to 65,000 a day by the end of the year.
• The first minister welcomed a new support package for jobs from Chancellor Rishi Sunak saying that “any additional support for business is positive”.