Scots who have recovered from coronavirus have been warned that the latest subvariant can reinfect after four weeks, even if they have recently had the virus.
The rapid infection rate of the new Omicron variant, known as BA.5, has partly caused cases to surge in the UK, as experts say 325,000 people are now catching Covid every day.
This comes as hospital admissions of those infected with the virus are on the rise. Public Health Scotland's latest figures revealed there were on average 1,450 patients in hospital with Covid-19, an increase of 26.3% from the previous week's number of 1,148, with 39 cases admitted to intensive care units.
Western Australia's chief health officer Andrew Robertson told news.com.au : “They (new variants) seem to be able to evade the protection from either having had a previous infection with BA2 or having had a vaccine.