As at the 17th of September 2023 there were 367 people in hospital with Covid, a decrease from the previous week when it was 420.

There was also a decrease in the number of people being admitted into hospital with Covid.

The weekly Public Health Scotland report also states that:

During the current Winter 2023 vaccination programme a total of 226,821 Influenza (Adult 18+), 20,818 Influenza (Children 6 months to 17 years) and 82,914 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to the Scottish population since 4 September 2023.

Click here for the figures for Scotland’s project which monitors Covid-19 by measuring its genetic footprint in waste water. Below is the information from Kirkwall, Orkney as at 7th September 2023.

It is impossible to track accurately the rate of Covid-19 virus infection levels in the community due to the barest amount of testing that is being done.

For future planning Public Health Scotland has published Scotland’s Infectious Respiratory Diseases Plan 2023-2024

To achieve our vision, the plan emphasises the need to create resilient and adaptive national infectious respiratory diseases surveillance and information systems. Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic will be applied to enhance detection, surveillance and control capabilities, and to prepare for and mitigate future harms from public health incidents. Public health intelligence and best practices will be shared to strengthen the collective response to these incident

It is planned to create ‘ a resilient, adaptive national infectious respiratory diseases surveillance system and workforce.‘ One of the elements in this new surveillance system will be to extend the testing of waste water for other viruses.

The weekly data on deaths registered in Scotland by National Records of Scotland has been published, 21st September 2023.

The provisional total number of deaths registered in Scotland in week 37 of 2023 (11th September to 17th September was 1,004 (88 or 8% below the 5-year average).  There were 29 deaths mentioning COVID-19.

N.B. Some areas in Scotland had public holidays in week 37, which has affected the number of deaths that were registered last week.

Those figures in more detail.

Deaths involving Covid-19.

• Age 45 -64: 3 deaths, 2 female, 1 male
• Age 65 – 74: 3 deaths: 2 female, 1 male
• Age 75 – 84 : 13 deaths: 5 female, 8 male
• Age 85+ : 10 deaths, 6 female, 4 male

Of the 29 deaths involving Covid, Covid was the underlying cause in 19 of them. There was one death in Orkney where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate.

Four deaths took place in Care Homes, 1 at Home/Non-Institutional setting, and 24 in Hospital.

There were 1,004 deaths due to all causes.

Fiona Grahame