During the current Winter 2023 vaccination programme a total of 1,020,912 Influenza (Adult 18+), 231,749 Influenza (Children 6 months to 17 years) and 810,960 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to the Scottish population since 4 September 2023 according to the weekly report (2nd November 2023) from Public Health Scotland

Information on vaccine uptake for the COVID-19 and influenza vaccine programmes is available via the Public Health Scotland – vaccination surveillance.

COVID-19 & respiratory surveillance in Scotland interactive dashboard shows the following information:

The number of acute COVID-19 admissions to hospital has decreased to 188 from the previous week’s 231.

The number of inpatients with COVID-19 in hospital has decreased slightly to 400 from the previous week’s 427

Scotland’s waste water is monitored for fragments of coronavirus’ ribonucleic acid (RNA)

The area served by Kirkwall’s waste water service was last published on 24th of October 2023. It continues to show a positive reading.

Weekly deaths published by National Records of Scotland (2nd November 2023)

The provisional total number of deaths registered in Scotland in week 43 of 2023 (23rd October to 29th October) was 1,137 (35 or 3% lower than the 5-year average).  There were 38 deaths mentioning COVID-19.

Those figures in more detail:

Deaths involving Covid

• Age: 45 -64 : 7 deaths, 2 female, 5 male
• Age 65 – 74: 4 deaths, 1 female, 3 male
• Age 75 – 84: 14 deaths, 5 female, 9 male
• Age 85+ : 13 deaths, 7 female, 6 male

Four of the Covid related deaths occurred in Care Homes; 1 at Home/Non-Institutional Setting; and 33 in Hospital.

Of the 38 deaths involving Covid, Covid was the main cause in 22 of them.

There were 1,137 deaths in total, 35 less than the 5 year average. However, there were 17 excess deaths in the category ‘other causes’.

Fiona Grahame