The Scottish cabinet will meet on Monday to consider further measures to help tackle coronavirus.
The Scottish Parliament will then be recalled for the first minister to make an "urgent statement".
Nicola Sturgeon said the "rapid increase in Covid cases driven by the new variant" was of "very serious concern".
"We are in a race between this faster spreading strain of Covid and the vaccination programme," she tweeted.
She warned on Friday that the next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid.
The cabinet is likely to consider a further delay to the return of Scottish schools and restrictions that are closer to the stay-at-home lockdown in March.
"All decisions just now are tough, with tough impacts," Ms Sturgeon wrote on twitter. "Vaccines give us way out, but this new strain makes the period between now and then the most dangerous since start of pandemic."
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The Scottish government's emergency resilience committee heard on Saturday that "quick and decisive action is needed" as the new variant of the virus is becoming the dominant one in Scotland.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: "The even steeper rises and severe pressure on the NHS that is being experienced in some other parts of the UK is a sign of what may lie ahead in Scotland if we do not take all possible steps now to slow the spread of the virus, while the vaccination programme progresses.
"The strong message remains - people should stay at home as much as possible and avoid non-essential interaction with others."
'Fragile situation'
Public health expert Prof Linda Bauld, from the University of Edinburgh, has said Scotland should be prepared for Covid restrictions to be extended as infection rates continue to rise.
The latest government figures show a further 2,137 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Scotland on Friday, although the rate dropped below Thursday's 2,539 cases.
Prof Bauld said there were no signs yet that the infection rate was levelling off, having risen suddenly from a daily rate of fewer than 1,000 to more than 2,000 per day in recent days.
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