To the omicron variant specifically, as our 5pm yesterday, there were 696 confirmed cases in scotland. however, these are cases confirmed through genomic sequencing and this measure therefore very significantly underestimates the true volume of omicron cases. as i have set out before, an earlier indicator of whether or not i cases omicron and a better measure of the overall volume of cases is the absence in pcr results of a specific genetic characteristic known as the s gene. around 85% of all test that are done in scotland are analysed in a way that allows us to see if this test gene is present or not. this has revealed over the past couple of weeks that omicron cases have been rising exponentially, indeed faster than anything experienced previously in the pandemic. as you have heard ....