Two new Scottish coronavirus cases are in Ayrshire and Grampian areas

Two Scottish coronavirus cases found overnight are from the Grampian and Ayrshire areas, the Scottish Government has said.

Both patients are described as “currently clinically well”.

One patient had recently travelled to northern Italy, while the other has had contact with a known positive case.

Officials said, however, that it was not with the first positive case in Scotland, a patient in Tayside.

Clinicians have begun contact tracing, the process of gathering details of the places they have visited and the people they have been in contact with.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “Our first thoughts must be with the patients diagnosed with coronavirus, I wish them a full and speedy recovery.”

Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood said: “Scotland is well equipped to deal with infections of this kind.

“We have a proven track record of dealing with challenging health issues, and have been preparing for this possibility since the beginning of the outbreak.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that statutory sick pay will be available from the first day of illness under emergency legislation to tackle the coronavirus.

Mr Johnson said people who self-isolate are “helping to protect all of us by slowing the spread of the virus” in announcing sick pay changes as part of emergency coronavirus legislation.

“If they stay at home and if we ask people to self-isolate, they may lose out financially,” he told the Commons.

“So, I can today announce that the Health Secretary will bring forward, as part of our emergency coronavirus legislation, measures to allow the payment of statutory sick pay from the very first day you are sick instead of four days under the current rules, and I think that’s the right way forward.

“Nobody should be penalised for doing the right thing.”