Scotland sees first weekly fall in recorded deaths linked to Covid-19
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Scotland has registered its first weekly fall in the total number of deaths confirmed or presumed to be related to Covid-19, according to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Addressing the Scottish Parliament, she referred to official numbers produced by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) on a weekly basis that note when the virus appears on a death certificate as a cause of death.
The number of deaths in both the NHS Highland and Highland Council areas climbed last week, but according to the latest NRS report released today and covering the seven days up to Sunday, May 3, the national death toll fell.
It shows that overall 2795 people have now died in Scotland – 523 of those in the last week.
That is a decrease of 135 from the week before and the first weekly reduction seen in Scotland's Covid-19 death toll.
Ms Sturgeon said: “In total, 49 per cent of all registered Covid-19 deaths occurred in hospital, 43 per cent in care homes and eight per cent at home or another setting.
“In the most recent weeks, however, 59 per cent of all deaths linked to the virus happened in care homes.
"While that is a deeply distressing figure it is nevertheless important to note that the number of deaths in care homes also reduced last week compared to the week before.
“And finally the total number of deaths, while still significantly higher than the five year average, also fell, which means what we refer to as 'excess deaths' (deaths above the recent historic average) were lower last week than the week before.”
Related article: Death toll in the NHS Highland area rises by 16 to 88 in the last week
