First Minister Nicola Sturgeon before announcing Kathleen Jamie as the new Makar (National Poet for Scotland) at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh.
Robert Perry
In the past 24 hours, the Scottish Government figures indicate 2,538 new cases were recorded – the highest since July 14
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The daily number of coronavirus cases in Scotland is at its highest since before the whole country moved to Level 0, according to the latest statistics.
In the past 24 hours, the Scottish Government figures indicate 2,538 new cases were recorded – the highest since July 14 when there were 2,636 cases of Covid-19.
Scotland moved to Level 0 just a few days later on July 19 and on August 9 went beyond this, with the majority of restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic lifted.
Ten deaths were also recorded on Tuesday, bringing the death toll under the daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 8,051.
The daily test positivity rate is 7.5%, down from 10.6% the previous day.
A total of 324 people were in hospital on Tuesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 14 on the previous day, with 39 patients in intensive care, down one.
So far, 4,065,970 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,498,257 have received their second dose.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf posted on Twitter that the figures “serve as reminder virus is [very] much still with us. There is an uptick in cases across UK”.
He urged people to stick to the remaining rules, get vaccinated, take regular tests and practice good hygiene measures.
It comes as data from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) also showed 41 fatalities mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate were registered in the week from August 9 to August 15.
This was 12 fewer than the previous week and takes the total number of people who have died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus to 10,464.
Of the latest deaths, 13 were people aged under 65, eight were 65-74, and 20 were 75 or older.
There were five deaths each in Glasgow, Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire, with three in the Highland Council area.
NRS statistics are published weekly and cover all deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
They differ from the lab-confirmed coronavirus deaths announced daily by the Scottish Government because the NRS figures include suspected or probable cases of Covid-19.
In Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) weekly statistical report, also published on Wednesday, figures suggest the proportion of all people admitted to hospital within 14 days of a laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 positive test has declined.
For the week commencing January 25 this year the figure was 13%, but it was 4% in the most recent week, July 26.
In the week ending August 15, PHS found 9,227 individuals were recorded in the contact tracing software – with 18,679 unique contacts traced.
The data also shows that under the community testing programme, 28.4% of symptomatic and 8.3% of asymptomatic tests for Covid-19 were positive.
