Five confirmed cases of the new South Africa variant of coronavirus have been registered in Scotland.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed the figure yesterday while speaking to the Scottish Parliament, adding that all the cases were linked to travelling, with no evidence of community transmission at this point.

She said: “I can also advise Parliament that, to date, there have been 5 cases of the new South African variant identified in Scotland. All of these have links to travel which means that there is no evidence so far of community transmission of that variant.”

It comes as the First Minister also confirmed that managed quarantine in hotels will now be mandatory for travellers entering Scotland from any country.

At present, Scottish Government rules are in line with the UK-wide policy of enforced quarantine hotels for visitors from countries which are under a travel ban.

However, Ms Sturgeon has said she the government feels the measures do not go far enough in protecting Scotland from the importation of new covid strains.

Announcing the plans, the First Minister said: “As we continue to suppress the virus within our own borders and increase the protection of the vaccine it is essential that we also guard against fresh importation of cases from overseas.

“This is particularly important as the virus mutates and new more infectious and potentially more severe variants emerge.

“As we look ahead we must learn from past experience. We now know for example that by early July last year, we had almost eliminated covid in Scotland, but then allowed it to be receded from, in the main, overseas travel. We must guard against that happening again.

“It is to that end that the four UK nations have already agreed that travellers coming into the UK from countries with a travel ban in place will be required to quarantine in hotels. That is a necessary measure, but in the Scottish Government’s view it does not go far enough.

“Firstly, there should be very few people coming from countries with a ban in place anyway. Second, this approach leaves open the possibility that people will travel into the UK from those countries via third countries. And thirdly, an approach to manage quarantine that only includes countries where new variants have already been identified is too reactive because often by the time a new variant has been identified through genomic sequencing it will already have spread across borders.

“So the firm view of the Scottish Government is that in order to minimise the risk of new strains coming into the country, managed quarantine must be much more comprehensive.

“I can therefore confirm today that we intend to introduce a managed quarantine requirement for anyone who arrives directly into Scotland regardless of which country they have come from.”

The Scottish Government will also be encouraging the UK Government to put the same restrictions in place, but Ms Sturgeon said if they choose not to do so, she will ask them to work with Scotland to reduce the risk of people importing the virus from other parts of the UK.