Scotland will go into a new lockdown with people ordered to stay at home for January to tackle the escalating COVID-19 crisis, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday.

Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament that from midnight on Monday people would face a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes, similar to the lockdown imposed at the start of the pandemic in March last year.

"As a result of this new variant, (the virus) has just learned to run much faster, and has most definitely picked up pace in the past couple of weeks," Sturgeon said. "It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation that we face now than I have been at any time since March."