As England changed its lockdown rules from 29th of March and mainland Scotland also gets set to ease its restrictions, it is a stark reminder that covid is still very much present in communities.

Figures published by National Records of Scotland (NRS), 31st of March show:

9,958 deaths have been registered in Scotland where the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate.

The Stats for Scotland, 31st of March 2021 were as follows:

• 542 new cases of COVID-19 reported
• 28,144 new tests for COVID-19 that reported results – 2.1% of these were positive
• 6 new reported death(s) of people who have tested positive
• 21 people were in intensive care yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19
• 237 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19
• 2,463,069 people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccination and 354,756 have received their second dose

Although the number of people dying from Covid in Scotland is going down, for every family this is a tragedy.

Of deaths involving COVID-19 in the latest week:

• 52% (32 deaths) were aged 75+, and 21% (13 deaths) were aged under 65.
• 48% were male (29 deaths) and 52% female (32 deaths).
• There were 23 deaths in Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area, 8 in Lanarkshire and 8 in Forth Valley.
• At council level, the highest number of deaths occurred in Glasgow City (14), North Lanarkshire (5), Falkirk (5) and East Ayrshire (5).
• The majority of deaths (70%) occurred in hospitals (43 deaths), with 13 deaths at home or in non-institutional settings and 5 deaths in care homes.

In Orkney there have been 4 covid related deaths since the start of the pandemic. The islands remain in Level 3 restrictions.

Stay Local

From Friday 2nd of April, the message in Scotland changes from ‘Stay at Home’ to ‘Stay Local’. Restrictions on non-essential travel remain in place and some services will be able to re-open on Monday 5th of April.

People are also being encouraged to work from home where that is possible.

Click on this link for: Timetable for planned phasing

The advice about how to stay safe and protect others remains the same:

• wear a face covering
• avoid crowded places
• clean hands and surfaces regularly
• stay 2m away from other people
• stay at home and book a testif you have COVID-19 symptoms (new continuous cough, fever or loss of, or change in, sense of smell or taste)
• download the Protect Scotland contact tracing app