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.

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.

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 publication was archived on 12 October 2023. Please see the Viral Respiratory Diseases (Including Influenza and COVID-19) in Scotland publication for the latest data. This dataset provides information on number of new daily confirmed cases, negative cases, deaths, testing by NHS Labs (Pillar 1) and UK Government (Pillar 2), new hospital admissions, new ICU admissions, hospital and ICU bed occupancy from novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, including cumulative totals and population rates at Scotland, NHS Board and Council Area levels (where possible). Seven day positive cases and population rates are also presented by Neighbourhood Area (Intermediate Zone 2011). Information on how PHS publish small are COVID figures is available on the PHS website. 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 is provided in this publication. 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. 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. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 12 March 2020. We now have spread of COVID-19 within communities in the UK. Public Health Scotland no longer reports the number of COVID-19 deaths within 28 days of a first positive test from 2nd June 2022. Please refer to NRS death certificate data as the single source for COVID-19 deaths data in Scotland. In the process of updating the hospital admissions reporting to include reinfections, we have had to review existing methodology. In order to provide the best possible linkage of COVID-19 cases to hospital admissions, each admission record is required to have a discharge date, to allow us to better match the most appropriate COVID positive episode details to an admission. This means that in cases where the discharge date is missing (either due to the patient still being treated, delays in discharge information being submitted or data quality issues), it has to be estimated. Estimating a discharge date for historic records means that the average stay for those with missing dates is reduced, and fewer stays overlap with records of positive tests. The result of these changes has meant that approximately 1,200 historic COVID admissions have been removed due to improvements in methodology to handle missing discharge dates, while approximately 820 have been added to the cumulative total with the inclusion of reinfections. COVID-19 hospital admissions are now identified as the following: A patient's first positive PCR or LFD test of the episode of infection (including reinfections at 90 days or more) for COVID-19 up to 14 days prior to admission to hospital, on the day of their admission or during their stay in hospital. If a patient's first positive PCR or LFD test of the episode of infection is after their date of discharge from hospital, they are not included in the analysis. Information on COVID-19, including stay at home advice for people who are self-isolating and their households, can be found on NHS Inform. Data visualisation of Scottish COVID-19 cases is available on the Public Health Scotland - Covid 19 Scotland dashboard. Further information on coronavirus in Scotland is available on the Scottish Government - Coronavirus in Scotland page, where further breakdown of past coronavirus data has also been published.

COVID-19Plots and analysis relating to the coronavirus pandemic. Includes five sets of plots and associated R code to generate them.1) HeatmapsUpdated every few days - heatmaps of COVID-19 case and death trajectories for Local Authorities (or equivalent) in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Germany.2) All cause mortalityUpdated on Tuesday (for England & Wales), Wednesday (for Scotland) and Friday (for Northern Ireland) - analysis and plots of weekly all-cause deaths in 2020 compared to previous years by country, age, sex and region. Also a set of international comparisons using data from mortality.org3) ExposuresNo longer updated - mapping of potential COVID-19 mortality exposure at local levels (LSOAs) in England based on the age-sex structure of the population and levels of poor health.There is also a Shiny app which creates slightly lower resolution versions of the same plots online, which you can find here: https://victimofmaths.shinyapps.io/covidmapper/, on GitHub https://github.com/VictimOfMaths/COVIDmapper and uploaded to this record4) Index of Multiple Deprivation No longer updated - preliminary analysis of the inequality impacts of COVID-19 based on Local Authority level cases and levels of deprivation. 5) Socioeconomic inequalities. No longer updated (unless ONS release more data) - Analysis of published ONS figures of COVID-19 and other cause mortality in 2020 compared to previous years by deprivation decile.Latest versions of plots and associated analysis can be found on Twitter: https://twitter.com/victimofmathsThis work is described in more detail on the UK Data Service Impact and Innovation Lab blog: https://blog.ukdataservice.ac.uk/visualising-high-risk-areas-for-covid-19-mortality/Adapted from data from the Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.1.0.http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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.

This publication was renamed on 12 October 2023 from Respiratory Infection Statistical Data in Scotland to Viral Respiratory Diseases (Including Influenza and COVID-19) Data in Scotland. This included the addition of 11 new datasets. For data files published prior to 12 October 2023, please see Archived - COVID-19 Statistical Data in Scotland. This dataset provides information on the number and rate of new weekly confirmed respiratory cases (including COVID-19, influenza and other non-influenza respiratory pathogens) at Scotland, NHS Board and Council Area (where available) level. This publication includes information on socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and deprivation status for both cases and hospital admissions, along with trend data. Data visualisation of Scottish COVID-19, influenza, and other respiratory pathogen cases is available on the Public Health Scotland - Covid 19 Scotland dashboard. Additional information can be found in the data dictionary for each dataset. Tracking infectious respiratory diseases, including COVID-19 and influenza, is essential, especially in the winter when the disease burden can be highest. In Scotland, respiratory infection and associated morbidity are monitored using enhanced surveillance. This approach combines data from microbiological sampling and laboratory test results from community and hospital settings with data from syndromic surveillance of NHS 24 calls, primary care consultations for respiratory symptoms, hospital (including intensive care) admissions and other settings. The intelligence generated from surveillance of laboratory, syndromic and settings provide a comprehensive picture of current respiratory illness in Scotland. The key non-influenza respiratory pathogens include adenovirus, seasonal coronaviruses (non-COVID-19), human metapneumovirus (HMPV), human parainfluenza virus (HPIV), Mycoplasma pneumoniae, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rhinovirus. These mostly cause mild upper respiratory tract symptoms, such as the common cold, but infection can sometimes lead to more severe lower respiratory tract complications, especially in young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Symptoms may also include a variety of non-respiratory presentations. Latest COVID-19 guidance from NHS Scotland, can be found here on NHS Inform. Further information on coronavirus in Scotland is available on the Scottish Government - Coronavirus in Scotland page.

Dataset description

Daily official UK Covid data. The data is available per country (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and for different regions in England. The different regions are split into two different files as part of the data is directly gathered by the NHS (National Health Service). The files that contain the word 'nhsregion' in their name, include data related to hospitals only, such as number of admissions or number of people in respirators. The files containing the word 'region' in their name, include the rest of the data, such as number of cases, number of vaccinated people or number of tests performed per day. The next paragraphs describe the columns for the different file types.

Region files

Files related to regions (word 'region' included in the file name) have the following columns: - "date": date in YYYY-MM-DD format - "area type": type of area covered in the file (region or nation) - "area name": name of area covered in the file (region or nation name) - "daily cases": new cases on a given date - "cum cases": cumulative cases - "new deaths 28days": new deaths within 28 days of a positive test - "cum deaths 28days": cumulative deaths within 28 days of a positive test - "new deaths_60days": new deaths within 60 days of a positive test - "cum deaths 60days": cumulative deaths within 60 days of a positive test - "new_first_episode": new first episodes by date - "cum_first_episode": cumulative first episodes by date - "new_reinfections": new reinfections by specimen data - "cum_reinfections": cumualtive reinfections by specimen data - "new_virus_test": new virus tests by date - "cum_virus_test": cumulative virus tests by date - "new_pcr_test": new PCR tests by date - "cum_pcr_test": cumulative PCR tests by date - "new_lfd_test": new LFD tests by date - "cum_lfd_test": cumulative LFD tests by date - "test_roll_pos_pct": percentage of unique case positivity by date rolling sum - "test_roll_people": unique people tested by date rolling sum - "new first dose": new people vaccinated with a first dose - "cum first dose": cumulative people vaccinated with a first dose - "new second dose": new people vaccinated with a first dose - "cum second dose": cumulative people vaccinated with a first dose - "new third dose": new people vaccinated with a booster or third dose - "cum third dose": cumulative people vaccinated with a booster or third dose

Country files

Files related to countries (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) have the above columns and also: - "new admissions": new admissions, - "cum admissions": cumulative admissions, - "hospital cases": patients in hospitals, - "ventilator beds": COVID occupied mechanical ventilator beds - "trans_rate_min": minimum transmission rate (R) - "trans_rate_max": maximum transmission rate (R) - "trans_growth_min": transmission rate growth min - "trans_growth_max": transmission rate growth max

NHS Region files

Files related to nhsregion (word 'nhsregion' included in the file name) have the following columns: - "new admissions": new admissions, - "cum admissions": cumulative admissions, - "hospital cases": patients in hospitals, - "ventilator beds": COVID occupied mechanical ventilator beds - "trans_rate_min": minimum transmission rate (R) - "trans_rate_max": maximum transmission rate (R) - "trans_growth_min": transmission rate growth min - "trans_growth_max": transmission rate growth max

It's worth noting that the dataset hasn't been cleaned and it needs cleaning. Also, different files have different null columns. This isn't an error in the dataset but the way different countries and regions report the data.

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.

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.

CVD-COVID-UK, co-ordinated by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre (https://bhfdatasciencecentre.org/), is one of the NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership’s National Flagship Projects.

CVD-COVID-UK aims to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases through analyses of de-identified, pseudonymised, linked, nationally collated health datasets across the four nations of the UK. The consortium has over 400 members across more than 50 institutions including data custodians, data scientists and clinicians, all of whom have signed up to an agreed set of principles with an inclusive, open and transparent ethos.

Approved researchers access data within secure trusted/secure research environments (TREs/SDEs) provided by NHS England (England), the National Safe Haven (Scotland), the SAIL Databank (Wales) and the Honest Broker Service (Northern Ireland). A dashboard of datasets available in each nation’s TRE can be found here: https://bhfdatasciencecentre.org/areas/cvd-covid-uk-covid-impact/

This dataset represents the linked datasets for CVD-COVID-UK in the National Safe Haven for Scotland and contains the following datasets: • Outpatient Appointments and Attendances - Scottish Morbidity Record (SMR00) • General Acute Inpatient and Day Case - Scottish Morbidity Record (SMR01) • Scotland Accident and Emergency • COVID-19 Tests (lab/lighthouse testing) • SARS-CoV-2 viral sequencing data (COG-UK data) - Lineage/Variant Data - Scotland • Scottish Covid-19 Vaccination Data • National Records of Scotland (NRS) - Deaths Data • SICSAG Daily (Scottish Intensive Care Audit Group) • SICSAG Episodes (Scottish Intensive Care Audit Group) • Prescribing Information System (PIS) • Scottish Stroke Care Audit • Diabetes covariates • Scottish Renal Registry

COVID-19 is a infectious Disease which has infected more than 500 people in UK and many more people world-wide.

Acknowledgements Sincere thanks to Public Health England and Local governments. Source of Data: UK Government and Public Health UK

****Notes on the methodology**** This service shows case numbers as reported to Public Health England (PHE), matched to Administrative Geography Codes from the Office of National Statistics. Cases include people who have recovered.

Events are time-stamped on the date that PHE was informed of the new case or death.

The map shows circles that grow or shrink in line with the number of cases in that geographic area.

Data from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is represented on the charts, total indicators and on the country level map layer.

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2020. Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2020.

Terms of Use No special restrictions or limitations on using the item’s content have been provided.

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.

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.

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).

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 to 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.

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.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been identified by a positive SARS-CoV-2 viral PCR test result. For any individual, the specimen date of their first positive viral PCR result is taken as the date of onset of their first episode of COVID-19. Subsequent positive viral PCR results with specimen date within 90 days of their first positive result are discounted. If the individual then has a positive viral PCR result with specimen date >=90 days after their first positive result, this is taken as the date of onset of their second episode of COVID-19. Subsequent positive viral PCR results with specimen date within 90 days of this second index date are then discounted as for the first episode of COVID, and so on. Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been identified as occurring in pregnancy if the date of onset of the episode of COVID-19 occurred at any point from the estimated date of conception (date the woman was 2+0 weeks gestation) up to and including the date the pregnancy ended. Traditionally, pregnancies were dated from the first day of a woman's last menstrual period (LMP) prior to her pregnancy, with this date being set as the first day of gestation (0+0 weeks) and babies being 'due' at 40+0 weeks. Conception, and hence the actual start of the pregnancy, usually occurs around 2 weeks after the first day of the LMP, at 2+0 gestation. These days, pregnancies are usually dated based on an ultrasound scan done in early pregnancy and the woman's LMP date, but this dating convention is still used, i.e. the date of conception is set at 2+0 weeks gestation. Broadly the three trimesters of pregnancy divide pregnancies into three approximately equal time periods covering early, mid, and later pregnancy However, there is no internationally agreed definition of the exact start and end point of each trimester Here we have used the definitions recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2017/05/methods-for-estimating-the-due-date The most critical period for a baby's development is between 2+0 and 9+6 weeks gestation: this is the period when all the major organs in the body are formed As the testing data is more up to date than the pregnancy data, we have assumed that any woman showing as 44+0 weeks gestation or over at the date of onset of an episode of COVID-19 was in fact no longer pregnant at that time and this has not been counted as an infection in pregnancy. As described in the Data sources tab, these data lag issues will be resolved over time as pregnancy related records are returned to PHS and incorporated into the COPS study database of pregnant women. The COPS study database includes women aged 11 to 55 years inclusive at the time of conception. An unlinked analysis has been used to calculate rates of infection among pregnant women. The denominator for this analysis is a 'snapshot' of the number of women pregnant at the start of the specified month. The numerator is the number of women with onset of COVID-19 during pregnancy at any point during the specified month.

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 'Induction of labour' is when a woman is given a medical intervention to start her labour rather than waiting for labour to start spontaneously. It is offered because there are medical reasons meaning it is considered safer (for the mother or baby) for the baby to be born, or because a woman is past her 'due date'. There are different approaches to inducing labour, for example using medicines, a medical 'balloon' device that sits at the neck of the womb, and/or breaking the woman's waters. This dataset shows information on induction of labour, presented at Scotland and NHS Board level. Scotland level data is also available by age group and deprivation category. The information on induction of labour presented in this dataset is taken from hospital discharge records, specifically records relating to the care of women delivering a singleton live birth (i.e. one baby, not twins or more) at 37-42 weeks gestation (i.e. up to 3 weeks before or after their due date). 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. Further information based on SMR02 data is also available from the annual Births in Scottish Hospitals report. 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.