Today, 10th of July, is the start of the mandatory wearing of face masks/coverings in shops for most people. Those travelling on public transport have been using them since the 22nd of June.

The weekly stats issued by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show the progress that has been made over the months.

Download: covid deaths report week 27 5th of July 2020 NRS

For the 10th week deaths have decreased where Covid19 was mentioned on the death certificate. In total in Scotland there have been 4,173 deaths in this way of recording.

Newly published is analysis of Covid19 deaths by ethnicity.

Download: ethnicity deceased covid-19 June20NRS

Deaths by COVID-19 involvement and ethnicity, Scotland, occurring on or after 12 March and registered by 14 June 2020

The results show that, over the course of the pandemic to date, COVID-19 was a relatively more common cause of death for people in the South Asian ethnic group, compared to people in the White ethnic group.

Scotland can now move into Phase 3 of easing out of lockdown providing these numbers remain low.

Phase 3 will commence on Monday 13th of July – and like Phase 2 it will come in gradually.

Link: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Phase 3: Scotland’s route map update

This is all very welcome news but is dependent on preventing virus transmission so that eventually it will be eradicated from our communities.

The Scotland Coronavirus Tracker gives you up to date information and you can compare how Scotland is faring in comparison with other countries in the UK and around the world. The R number – that is the rate of transmission –  in Scotland has remained between 0.6 and 0.8 for some weeks now.

Here are the R numbers for England and its regions.

And this table gives the number of people by country in the UK who have died where they have been confirmed with a test as having Covid19.

 As you can see from the figures this deadly highly infectious virus is still causing the deaths of people across all 4 countries in the UK. So as we move in Scotland into Phase 3 it is more important than ever to be aware of the impact of Covid19 and what every individual can do to prevent its transmission.