Covid patients in hospital down 6.3% in a week, figures show

The number of Covid positive patients in Scotland’s hospitals has fallen by more than 6%, the latest weekly figures show.

Public Health Scotland said there were an average of 810 patients in hospital with the virus in the week ending October 30.

That is down from an average of 874 patients in hospital the previous week, a reduction of 6.3%.

The decrease comes despite new figures showing a rise in the proportion of people testing positive for Covid-19.

Separate figures from the Office for National Statistics show 159,200 people – just over 3% of the Scottish population – had the virus in the week ending October 17, compared to about 2.74% of the population in the previous seven days.

As well as showing a reduction in coronavirus patients in hospital, Public Health Scotland’s figures revealed a decrease in new admissions to intensive care.

In the final week of October there were seven admissions to ICU, down from 10 in the week ending October 23.

The data also showed that by October 30, 1,214,300 Scots had been given a Covid booster as part of the winter vaccination campaign – with more than nine in 10 of them (93.2%) having been  vaccinated against flu at the same time.