Official confirmation of 16 coronavirus deaths in the NHS Highland area
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A total of 16 people have died of coronavirus in the NHS Highland area, according to new data from the National Records of Scotland (NRS).
It is the first confirmation of deaths in the health board, since First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed last Friday the Scottish Government would move to a more accurate form of reporting the number of Covid-19 cases.
NRS statistics capture all deaths registered where the death certificate states that Covid-19 was relevant to the cause of death.
This covers all settings, including hospital and community deaths.
It is anticipated to deliver a more accurate but a higher death toll.
Between March 30 and April 5 there were a total of 366 deaths – yesterday the number of deaths stood at 296 – due to the virus in Scotland and of those 16 were in the Highlands which yesterday had a total of 112 confirmed cases of the infection.
More than 60 per cent of all deaths involving Covid-19 were people aged 75 or over and the highest recorded number was in Greater Glasgow and Clyde with 122 deaths – it has 1094 confirmed cases.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, speaking at her daily briefing, underlined that the statistics do not tell the full story and that behind each number there is a person with a family and loved ones.
She said: “I know, and I have reflected on this before and it is something I reflect on regularly, it can be really hard hearing accounts of numbers of deaths and understand that it can make us feel powerless that this is taking so many lives.
“But we all do have power as individual citizens and I want again today to stress that by following the rules, by staying at home, by self-isolating when we have symptoms all of us can help to reduce the number of deaths.
“And finally, I said this on several recent occasions, when I think it is appropriate to say again I focus on these statistics in these updates because they are really important to give some overall sense of how the virus is spreading but I am acutely aware that deaths are much more than statistics.
“Each one of these deaths represents an individual, whose loss is a cause of deep grief and I want once again to express my condolences to everyone who has lost friends, family or loved ones.”
Pete Whitehouse, director of statistical services at the NRS, said: “We are living in unprecedented times and all of these deaths are tragic.
“These statistics, when placed alongside the other important evidence being made available by the Scottish Government and Health Protection Scotland, will be valuable to the understanding of the progress and impact of the Covid-19 virus across Scotland.
“We have produced these statistics based on deaths involving Covid-19, so this includes any deaths where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate, whether it is the underlying cause of death or a contributory cause and includes registered deaths resulting from suspected or probable Covid-19.
“Using this methodology means that our statistics will differ from the number of deaths released daily by HPS which report on deaths with an associated positive test for Covid-19, and it is expected that NRS statistics will show a higher number of deaths. This is because NRS figures report on deaths involving confirmed and also suspected or probable cases of Covid-19.”
