Fifteen newly reported deaths have occurred of people who tested positive for Covid19 in Scotland. The figures released by the Scottish Government today (20th October) also record 1,456 new cases – including one new case in Orkney.

Scotland is also seeing a continued rise in the number of people having to be hospitalised due to the virus – 824 and with 69 people in intensive care.

These worrying figures reflect the community outbreaks which have occurred not just across the 5 Health Board areas where stricter restrictions have been put in place but also that no part of Scotland is ‘immune’ to covid.

The best way for us to control and limit the spread of Covid is to

• wear a face covering
• avoid crowded places
• clean hands and surfaces regularly
• stay 2m away from other people
• self-isolate and book a test if you have COVID-19 symptoms (new continuous cough, fever or loss of, or change in, sense of smell or taste)

The importance of self isolating and booking a test as soon as you have any of the symptoms was stressed today by National Clinical Director, Jason Leitch.

He said that it was very important that anyone who thinks they have symptoms should not wait to see if they pass in a day or two.

Self-help guide: Access to testing for coronavirus

This is also essential for tracing any contacts the person, if they do test positive, have come in contact with.

The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are:

• a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

And to help with contact tracing the Protect Scotland app from NHS Scotland is free to download.