New reporting method announced for Scotland due to rise in deaths and infections
The Scottish Government has announced that it is to revise the reporting methods of coronavirus cases and deaths to ensure that it is as “robust and up-to-date as possible.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made the announcement after revealing that there were 50 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours but of those 40 were reported late due to “delays in family liaison.”
At the moment health boards report the number of fatalities but now Health Protection Scotland will no longer rely on health board reporting but also on the National Records Office.
A second change will promised a greater breakdown in the figures, potentially showing more geographical detail or how many tests have been conducted per health board as opposed to offering national figures only.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Notifications of death with a laboratory confirmation of Covid-19 would be 10, which would have taken the total to 86.
“However, we also have been advised overnight of an additional 40 deaths that had not previously been notified due to delays in family liaison and that means that the total number of deaths in Scotland is now 126.
“However, it wouldn't be accurate to add all of the additional 40 deaths to today's total – they will require to be distributed over a number of days and we will seek to provide further detail at a later date.
“To reiterate it does mean that the total number of people with a confirmed Covid-19 diagnosis who have died in Scotland is now a 126 and I can also confirm today that because the numbers of deaths are unfortunately rising as the virus continues to spread.
“It is necessary to make some changes to reporting system to ensure that as we go forward it is as robust and as up-to-date as possible and also as comprehensive as possible
“So these two changes are as follows, firstly, from now on the daily figure of confirmed deaths reported by Health Protection Scotland will no longer rely simply on notifications by individual health boards.
“Instead, each primary source will use validated National Records of Scotland (NRS) figures, in short what that means is that the daily figure reported will represent the number of the laboratory confirmed Covid-19 cases confirmed through the NRS death registration process for the preceding 24 hours, ending at midnight the night before.
“The second change is that the NRS will start to report on deaths where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate, this will include not just the confirmed cases but also resumed cases and it will cover all settings including hospital and community deaths.
“As the number of deaths rise the issues of patient confidentiality associated with small numbers become less relevant so from next week each primary source will also be seeking to publish much more detailed breakdowns of these numbers.
“We will give more detail of exactly what that will entail over the weekend.”
