Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she expects the travel restrictions in parts of Dumfries & Galloway will be lifted tomorrow.

The restrictions, which continued the five mile limit on travel for leisure purposes in the Annan, Gretna, Dumfries, Canonbie and Lockerbie areas, had been put in place following the identification of a "cluster" of Covid-19 cases that have involved a number of staff members at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

Mrs Sturgeon said this afternoon that since the end of last week, the number of identified coronavirus cases associated with this "cluster" has only risen by one, to 12 confirmed cases.

"Last week we made the decision to delay the lifting of travel restrictions for people living in certain parts of the Dumfries & Galloway region," she said at her daily coronavirus briefing this afternoon.

"That delay was necessary to allow us to complete testing and contact tracing, and to assess if the outbreak there had been contained.

"I can report today that since last Thursday, only one additional case has been identified, which brings the total number of cases within this cluster to 12."

Mrs Sturgeon added that 23 contacts identified as being potentially at risk of having Covid-19 had been traced, as part of the efforts to contain the spread of the outbreak.

"They’ve all been offered testing, and they are all self-isolating," she said.

"As a result, we are now as confident as we can be that this cluster is under control."

She added that the Scottish Government was still seeking some "final reassurances" from the Cumberland Infirmary before proceeding with relaxing the travel restrictions in the affected parts of Dumfries and Galloway.

"We’re seeking some final assurances and information today around the situation at the Carlisle hospital, and more generally in Cumbria.

"But I am very hopeful that following a further review later today we will be able to lift the restrictions for Dumfries and Galloway tomorrow, and of course I will give an update on that then."

The First Minister explained at today's Covid-19 press conference that there were still more detailed investigations to be carried out in order to conclusively identify the source of the outbreak.

"We think it is possible that it has been associated with a nosocomial (originating in a hospital) outbreak in the hospital in Carlisle," she said.

"And so we are seeking assurance that that nosocomial outbreak is under control, so that in addition to the assurances we have about the cluster in Dumfries & Galloway, we know if that potentially was the source, we also have an assurance that that part of it is contained as well.

"I would hope that we will have all of the bits of assurance that we need in place over the course of today, so that we can lift the restrictions as of tomorrow.

"But it’s important that we continue to act in a precautionary basis right now, particularly given that we are in the early stages of dealing with these localised outbreaks, and trying to learn lessons around it as we go along."