As of October 3, 2023, there were 2,189,008 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland. The Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board has the highest amount of confirmed cases at 514,117, although this is also the most populated part of Scotland. The Lothian health board has 368,930 confirmed cases which contains Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland.

Situation in the rest of the UK Across the whole of the UK there have been 24,243,393 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of January 2023. Scotland currently has fewer cases than four regions in England. As of December 2023, the South East has the highest number of confirmed first-episode cases of the virus in the UK with 3,180,101 registered cases, while London and the North West have 2,947,7271 and 2,621,449 confirmed cases, respectively.

COVID deaths in the UK COVID-19 has so far been responsible for 202,157deaths in the UK as of January 13, 2023, and the UK has had the highest death toll from coronavirus in Western Europe. The incidence of deaths in the UK is 297.8 per 100,000 population.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Data is updated at 14:00pm daily further notes and guidance is available in the dashboard under the 'Acknowledgements' section. The following items are included in the Scottish Covid Cases and Deaths dashboard: Spatial Layers NHSBoardcasesThis displays total cumulative COVID 19 cases by NHS Board as proportional symbols. Boundaries are based on 2019 NHS Board definitions. LocalAuthoritycasesThis displays total cumulative COVID 19 cases by Local Authority as proportional symbols. Boundaries are based on 2019 Local Authority definitions. Tablestotal_cases_by_hb.csvThis displays cumulative positive COVID 19 cases by 9-digit Scottish Government code and name (2019 version) for NHS Board areas. total_cases_by_la.csvThis displays cumulative positive COVID 19 cases by 9-digit Scottish Government code and name (2019 version) for Local Authority areas. daily_and_cumulative_counts.csvThis displays daily and cumulative positive COVID 19 cases at Scotland level. It also reports daily on cumulative hospital deaths.

This open data publication has moved to COVID-19 Statistical Data in Scotland (from 02/11/2022) Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. Clinical presentation may range from mild-to-moderate illness to pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection. This dataset provides information on demographic characteristics (age, sex, deprivation) of confirmed novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, as well as trend data regarding the wider impact of the virus on the healthcare system. Data includes information on primary care out of hours consultations, respiratory calls made to NHS24, contact with COVID-19 Hubs and Assessment Centres, incidents received by Scottish Ambulance Services (SAS), as well as COVID-19 related hospital admissions and admissions to ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Further data on the wider impact of the COVID-19 response, focusing on hospital admissions, unscheduled care and volume of calls to NHS24, is available on the COVID-19 Wider Impact Dashboard. There is a large amount of data being regularly published regarding COVID-19 (for example, Coronavirus in Scotland - Scottish Government and Deaths involving coronavirus in Scotland - National Records of Scotland. Additional data sources relating to this topic area are provided in the Links section of the Metadata below. Information on COVID-19, including stay at home advice for people who are self-isolating and their households, can be found on NHS Inform. All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found in the weekly COVID-19 Statistical Report. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications. Data visualisation is available to view in the interactive dashboard accompanying the COVID-19 Statistical Report. Please note information on COVID-19 in children and young people of educational age, education staff and educational settings is presented in a new COVID-19 Education Surveillance dataset going forward.

Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland, part of National Services Scotland works closely with Public Health Scotland to deliver the COVID-19 response. This dataset provides data for hospital onset COVID-19 cases in Scotland for week ending 1 March 2020 to week ending 5 February 2023. COVID-19 cases first diagnosed within hospital inpatients are classed as hospital onset COVID-19, with the length of time between admission and the date of first positive test of new infections or reinfection episodes (90 days from previous COVID-19 positive result), determining their hospital onset status. This dataset includes all probable and definite hospital onset COVID-19 cases. Data are published on the Open Data platform at NHS Scotland level, by week of specimen date. All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found in the weekly Hospital onset COVID-19 cases in Scotland publication. Further information on SARS-CoV-2 and current infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance can be found in the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual. Due to the lower number of hospital onset COVID-19 cases, and to support NHS boards by reducing local Infection Prevention and Control Team resource required for surveillance, the last publication of this data was on 1 March 2023.

Findings from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey for Scotland.

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. Clinical presentation may range from mild-to-moderate illness to pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection. The COVID-19 pandemic has wider impacts on individuals' health, and their use of healthcare services, than those that occur as the direct result of infection. Reasons for this may include: * Individuals being reluctant to use health services because they do not want to burden the NHS or are anxious about the risk of infection. * The health service delaying preventative and non-urgent care such as some screening services and planned surgery. * Other indirect effects of interventions to control COVID-19, such as mental or physical consequences of distancing measures. This dataset provides information on trend data regarding the wider impact of the pandemic on Primary Care Out of Hours cases. The Primary Care Out of Hours service provides urgent access to a nurse or doctor, when needed at times outside normal general practice hours, such as evenings, overnight or during the weekend. An appointment to the service is normally arranged following contact with NHS 24. The recent trend data is shown by age group, sex and broad deprivation category (SIMD). Information is also available at different levels of geographical breakdown such as Health Boards, Health and Social Care partnerships, and Scotland totals. This data is also available on the COVID-19 Wider Impact Dashboard. Additional data sources relating to this topic area are provided in the Links section of the Metadata below. Information on COVID-19, including stay at home advice for people who are self-isolating and their households, can be found on NHS Inform. All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found in the weekly COVID-19 Statistical Report. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications.

Self-reported COVID-19 infections and other respiratory illnesses, including associated symptoms and health outcomes. Joint study with the UK Health Security Agency. These are official statistics in development.

Care for women around the time they are giving birth is an essential, time critical service that cannot be deferred. As such, it has been provided throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and maternity staff have not been redeployed to support other services. The way that some elements of this care are provided has changed in response to COVID-19 however, to minimise the risk of infection and to allow services to continue to provide safe care during times when a high number of staff may be off work, for example due to needing to isolate. Guidance issued by the Scottish Government and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to maternity services at the height of the first wave of the pandemic noted that: * It may be necessary for services to temporarily suspend the option for women to deliver at home or in midwife led units, and to concentrate delivery care within obstetric units. * Additional restrictions on the use of water births were recommended. * Care pathways for women requiring induction of labour should be amended to ensure the early stages of the induction process were delivered on an outpatient basis wherever possible. * Services should consider deferring a planned induction of labour or elective caesarean section if a woman was isolating due to having COVID-19, or having been in contact with a case, if it was safe to do so. * Services should support low risk women in the early latent phase of labour to remain at home wherever possible. * In general, strict restrictions on visitors for patients in hospital were advised, however women giving birth could still be accompanied by their chosen birth partner. The 'method of delivery' refers to the way a baby is born. Different methods of delivery include spontaneous vaginal delivery (a natural birth); assisted vaginal delivery (including vaginal delivery by forceps or ventouse, or vaginal delivery of a breech baby); or a caesarean section (an operation to deliver the baby through a cut in the mother's abdomen). A caesarean section can be elective (planned in advance and provided before labour has started) or emergency (unplanned, and usually but not always provided after labour has started). This dataset shows information on method of delivery at Scotland and NHS Board level. Age and deprivation breakdown is also available at Scotland level. This data is also available on the COVID-19 Wider Impact Dashboard. Additional data sources relating to this topic area are provided in the Links section of the Metadata below. Information on COVID-19, including stay at home advice for people who are self-isolating and their households, can be found on NHS Inform. All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found in the weekly COVID-19 Statistical Report. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications.

As of January 12, 2023, COVID-19 has been responsible for 202,157 deaths in the UK overall. The North West of England has been the most affected area in terms of deaths at 28,116, followed by the South East of England with 26,221 coronavirus deaths. Furthermore, there have been 22,264 mortalities in London as a result of COVID-19.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. Clinical presentation may range from mild-to-moderate illness to pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection. The COVID-19 pandemic has wider impacts on individuals' health, and their use of healthcare services, than those that occur as the direct result of infection. Reasons for this may include: * Individuals being reluctant to use health services because they do not want to burden the NHS or are anxious about the risk of infection. * The health service delaying preventative and non-urgent care such as some screening services and planned surgery. * Other indirect effects of interventions to control COVID-19, such as mental or physical consequences of distancing measures. This dataset provides information on trend data regarding the wider impact of the pandemic on Scottish Ambulance Services. Data are shown by age group, sex and broad deprivation category (SIMD), as well as by different levels of geographical breakdown such as Health Boards, Health and Social Care partnerships, and Scotland totals. Please note that the source of this data is the Unscheduled Care Datamart and represents a sub-set of the total Scottish Ambulance service activity. Figures include emergencies, where a vehicle arrived at the scene of the incident, and excludes both data from resources which were cleared as 'dealt with by another vehicle' and air ambulance data. The figures presented in this dataset relate to incidents concerning both COVID-19 and non-COVID issues. This data is also available on the COVID-19 Wider Impact Dashboard. Additional data sources relating to this topic area are provided in the Links section of the Metadata below. Information on COVID-19, including stay at home advice for people who are self-isolating and their households, can be found on NHS Inform. All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found in the weekly COVID-19 Statistical Report. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications.

This dataset presents information on COVID-19 in children and young people of educational age, education staff and educational settings. This includes: * Testing and cases among children and young people of educational age. * Hospital admissions related to COVID-19 among children and young people of educational age. * Information from contact tracing on cases present in an educational setting in the 7-days before symptom onset, and on cases who work in education or childcare. * Information about COVID-19 cases in registered school pupils. This data is also available on the COVID-19 Education Surveillance Dashboard. Additional data sources relating to this topic area are provided in the Links section of the Metadata below. All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found on the Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 in Education settings section of the Public Health Scotland website. From 11/06/2021 data completeness will be up to the previous Wednesday, so weekly data are aggregated from Thursday to Wednesday. Previously data covered periods from Saturday to Friday. This is due to NHS Boards submitting admission data from Monday to Friday and a three day lag for some boards by the time data is processed for COVID-19 hospital admission. From 2nd of July, information on testing and admissions will be extended to include 20-21 years olds, and admissions will also include 18-19 year olds. From 13th of August, information on PCR testing and admissions has been extended to include 0-1 year olds.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Edinburgh Napier University’s Transport Research Institute has been undertaking a study, funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), into its impact on transport and travel in Scotland. As part of this research, a travel behaviour questionnaire was developed focusing on daily travel as well as people’s long-term travel habits, attitudes and preferences during the different phases of the pandemic outbreak. The associated questionnaires were completed by participants between 3rd February 2021 and 17th February 2021 using the online platform, Qualtrics. The survey was restricted to Scottish residents and involved enforcing quota constraints for age, gender and household income. A total of 994 responses were collected. Perceptions of risk, trust in information sources and compliance with COVID-19 regulations were determined together with changes in levels of ‘life satisfaction’ and modal choice following the onset of COVID-19. In addition, survey responses were used to identify anticipated travel mode use in the future. Consideration was also given to the effects of COVID-19 on transport related lifestyle issues such as ‘working from home’, online shopping and the expectations of moving residences in the future. The research provided an insight into both the relationships between the levels of non-compliance with COVID-19 regulations and demographic variables and the respondent attributes which might affect future public transport usage. In general, the study confirmed significant reductions in traffic activity, amongst respondents during the COVID 19 pandemic associated with walking, driving a car and either using a bus or train. The respondents also indicated that they anticipated they would continue to make less use of buses and trains at the end of the pandemic.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Edinburgh Napier University’s Transport Research Institute has been undertaking a study, funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), into its impact on transport and travel in Scotland. As part of this research, a travel behaviour questionnaire was developed focusing on daily travel as well as people’s long-term travel habits, attitudes and preferences during the different phases of the pandemic outbreak. The associated questionnaires were completed by participants between 3rd February 2021 and 17th February 2021 using the online platform, Qualtrics. The survey was restricted to Scottish residents and involved enforcing quota constraints for age, gender and household income. A total of 994 responses were collected. Perceptions of risk, trust in information sources and compliance with COVID-19 regulations were determined together with changes in levels of ‘life satisfaction’ and modal choice following the onset of COVID-19. In addition, survey responses were used to identify anticipated travel mode use in the future. Consideration was also given to the effects of COVID-19 on transport related lifestyle issues such as ‘working from home’, online shopping and the expectations of moving residences in the future. The research providedan insight into both the relationships between the levels of non-compliance with COVID-19 regulations and demographic variables and the respondent attributes which might affect future public transport usage. In general, the study confirmed significant reductions in traffic activity, amongst respondents during the COVID 19 pandemic associated with walking, driving a car and either using a bus or train. The respondents also indicated that they anticipated they would continue to make less use of buses and trains at the end of the pandemic.

As of February 4, 2022, in the age group 75 to 84 years old COVID-19 was involved in the deaths of 32,780 males and 23,390 females in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, since the pandemic started over 72 thousand deaths in the UK among those aged 85 years and above involved COVID-19. For further information about the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Press Briefings Corpus is a work in progress to collect and present in a machine readable text dataset of the daily briefings from around the world by government authorities. During the peak of the pandemic, most countries around the world informed their citizens of the status of the pandemic (usually involving an update on the number of infection cases, number of deaths) and other policy-oriented decisions about dealing with the health crisis, such as advice about what to do to reduce the spread of the epidemic.

Usually daily briefings did not occur on a Sunday.

At the moment the dataset includes:

UK/England: Daily Press Briefings by UK Government between 12 March 2020 - 01 June 2020 (70 briefings in total)

Scotland: Daily Press Briefings by Scottish Government between 3 March 2020 - 01 June 2020 (76 briefings in total)

Wales: Daily Press Briefings by Welsh Government between 23 March 2020 - 01 June 2020 (56 briefings in total)

Northern Ireland: Daily Press Briefings by N. Ireland Assembly between 23 March 2020 - 01 June 2020 (56 briefings in total)

World Health Organisation: Press Briefings occuring usually every 2 days between 22 January 2020 - 01 June 2020 (63 briefings in total)

More countries will be added in due course, and we will be keeping this updated to cover the latest daily briefings available.

The corpus is compiled to allow for further automated political discourse analysis (classification).

As of October 31, 2021, COVID-19 was involved in the deaths of 1,448 people in Northern Ireland between 80 and 89 years of age. In that age group, there were 771 male deaths and 677 female deaths. A further 886 deaths involving COVID-19 were recorded among 70 to 79 year olds. In England, the age group 80 to 89 years also had the highest number of deaths involving COVID-19, the case was also the same in Scotland. For further information about the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

This research project mapped and monitored responses to household food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, local authorities, charities and local communities worked to ensure access to food for those facing new risks of food insecurity due to being unable to go out for food or due to income losses arising from the crisis. New schemes were developed, such as governments replacing incomes of people at risk of unemployment on account of lockdowns, providing food parcels for people asked to shield, referrals for people to receive voluntary help with grocery shopping, and free school meals replacement vouchers or cash transfers. These worked alongside existing provision for those unable to afford food – such as food banks – which have been adapting their services to continue to meet increasing demand from a range of population groups. This resulted in a complex set of support structures which developed and changed as the COVID-19 pandemic, and its impacts, evolved.

About the project

The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the UKRI Ideas to Address COVID-19 grant call and ran for two years from July 2020. The research aimed to provide collaborative monitoring and analysis of food support systems to inform food access policy and practice. The research team was led by the University of Sheffield and King’s College London alongside colleagues from Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and Church Action on Poverty. Full details of the team are below. Collaboration with partners and stakeholders was at the heart of the project. The research team worked with stakeholders from national and local government, the civil service, third sector, NGOs as well as people who were accessing food and financial assistance during the pandemic.

The End of project summary of key findings were published in August 2022. Details of the workpackages and research reports can be found below.

Project work packages

Work package 1: National level food access systems mapping and monitoring

Looking at food access support across the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic, national level mapping and monitoring was undertaken in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as at a UK level. National level stakeholders (for example from devolved governments and national voluntary organisations) from across the four nations worked with us to understand and monitor how support for food access has operated and evolved across the UK.

Work package 1 publications: Mapping responses to the risk of rising food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis across the UK (published August 2020) Monitoring responses to the risk of rising food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis across the UK (published December 2020) Mapping and monitoring responses to the risk of rising food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis across the UK - Autumn 2020 to Summer 2021 (published August 2022)

Work package 2: Participatory Policy Panel

To fully understand food access responses, it was crucial to hear directly from those with lived experience of food insecurity during the pandemic. In partnership with Church Action on Poverty, we convened a participatory policy panel made up of people who have direct experience of a broad range of support to access food. Meeting regularly throughout the project (Oct 2020-Dec 2021), the panel used a range of participatory and creative methods to share and reflect on their experiences and contribute these to policy recommendations.

Work package 2 publications: Navigating Storms (published October 2021) Food Experiences During COVID-19 Participatory Panel Deliberative Policy Engagement (published August 2022) Food Experiences During COVID-19 - Participatory Methods in Practice: Key Learning (published August 2022)

Work package 3: Local area case studies

Fourteen local areas across the UK were the focus for more in depth case study research. Working with local stakeholders in each area, the research mapped what local responses looked like and how they operated. The research followed the developments in these areas throughout the duration of the project.

Work package 3 publications: Comparing local responses to household food insecurity during COVID-19 across the UK (March – August 2020) – Executive Summary (published July 2021) Comparing local responses to household food insecurity during COVID-19 across the UK (March – August 2020) (published July 2021). Eight local case study reports covering responses in those areas between March and August 2020: Argyll and Bute, Belfast, Cardiff, Derry and Strabane, Herefordshire, Moray, Swansea, West Berkshire (published July 2021). Local Area Case Studies – Methodological Appendix (published July 2021) Local responses to household food insecurity during COVID-19 across the UK (March – August 2020): Full report (published July 2021) Local responses to household food insecurity across the UK...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in healthcare services, with previous studies estimated that the early months of the pandemic led to a substantial decline in new prescriptions for hypercholesterolemia and hypertension. The long-term recovery of healthcare systems in addressing these gaps remains uncertain. We aimed to assess the recovery of the healthcare system in Scotland regarding the initiation of treatments for hypercholesterolemia and hypertension post-COVID-19 pandemic. This retrospective cohort study analysed prescription data from January 2020 to December 2022 in Scotland, as well as In-hours encounters with general practitioners. Incident prescribing patterns for drugs used in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia and hypertension were compared against pre-pandemic averages from 2018-2019. Data were stratified by health regions and socioeconomic status. New treatment initiations for drugs used in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia and hypertension significantly increased from mid-2021 onwards, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. By December 2022, there were approximately 40,000 and 60,000 additional new treatments for drugs used to treat hypercholesterolemia and hypertension, respectively, compared to the expected numbers based on 2018-2019 averages. The stratified analysis showed a relatively higher increase in less deprived quintiles. GP encounter activities mirrored trends in new antihypertensive and lipid-lowering initiations, with a significant reduction starting in March 2020 due to the first COVID-19 lockdown. Encounter rates gradually recovered from May 2020, reaching near pre-pandemic levels by March 2021. Notably, the encounter rate slopes during the reference period (2018–2019) and post-recovery phase (May 2021–December 2022) showed no significant difference [-0.7 (95% CI: -4.0, 2.5) vs. 0.9 (95% CI: -3.1, 4.9)]. The observed increase in new treatments for drugs to treat hypercholesterolemia and hypertension suggests recovery of the healthcare system in Scotland following the COVID-19 pandemic. These higher prescribing rates post-pandemic hypothesise potential long-term sequelae associated with COVID-19. The findings demonstrate the potential for improved pharmacotherapy strategies that address both the backlog of untreated cases and new-onset conditions linked to COVID-19. This underscores the need for ongoing surveillance and flexible healthcare responses to manage emerging health challenges effectively. Additionally, our findings suggest novel research areas that could offer a more comprehensive understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic's influence on the prescribing patterns of these widely used medications.

BackgroundDNA methylation is a dynamic epigenetic mechanism that occurs at cytosine-phosphate-guanine dinucleotide (CpG) sites. Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) investigate the strength of association between methylation at individual CpG sites and health outcomes. Although blood methylation may act as a peripheral marker of common disease states, previous EWAS have typically focused only on individual conditions and have had limited power to discover disease-associated loci. This study examined the association of blood DNA methylation with the prevalence of 14 disease states and the incidence of 19 disease states in a single population of over 18,000 Scottish individuals.Methods and findingsDNA methylation was assayed at 752,722 CpG sites in whole-blood samples from 18,413 volunteers in the family-structured, population-based cohort study Generation Scotland (age range 18 to 99 years). EWAS tested for cross-sectional associations between baseline CpG methylation and 14 prevalent disease states, and for longitudinal associations between baseline CpG methylation and 19 incident disease states. Prevalent cases were self-reported on health questionnaires at the baseline. Incident cases were identified using linkage to Scottish primary (Read 2) and secondary (ICD-10) care records, and the censoring date was set to October 2020. The mean time-to-diagnosis ranged from 5.0 years (for chronic pain) to 11.7 years (for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) hospitalisation). The 19 disease states considered in this study were selected if they were present on the World Health Organisation’s 10 leading causes of death and disease burden or included in baseline self-report questionnaires. EWAS models were adjusted for age at methylation typing, sex, estimated white blood cell composition, population structure, and 5 common lifestyle risk factors. A structured literature review was also conducted to identify existing EWAS for all 19 disease states tested. The MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and preprint servers were searched to retrieve relevant articles indexed as of March 27, 2023. Fifty-four of approximately 2,000 indexed articles met our inclusion criteria: assayed blood-based DNA methylation, had >20 individuals in each comparison group, and examined one of the 19 conditions considered. First, we assessed whether the associations identified in our study were reported in previous studies. We identified 69 associations between CpGs and the prevalence of 4 conditions, of which 58 were newly described. The conditions were breast cancer, chronic kidney disease, ischemic heart disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. We also uncovered 64 CpGs that associated with the incidence of 2 disease states (COPD and type 2 diabetes), of which 56 were not reported in the surveyed literature. Second, we assessed replication across existing studies, which was defined as the reporting of at least 1 common site in >2 studies that examined the same condition. Only 6/19 disease states had evidence of such replication. The limitations of this study include the nonconsideration of medication data and a potential lack of generalizability to individuals that are not of Scottish and European ancestry.ConclusionsWe discovered over 100 associations between blood methylation sites and common disease states, independently of major confounding risk factors, and a need for greater standardisation among EWAS on human disease.