Rise in Covid patients in Scotland’s hospitals, figures show

The number of patients in Scotland’s hospitals with Covid has increased, the latest weekly figures showed.

Data from Public Health Scotland showed in the week ending October 16 there was an average of 875 patients in hospital with the virus – a rise of 3.9% from the previous seven days.

The average number of coronavirus patients in hospital is up from 838 in the week ending October 9, and compares to an average of 744 patients in the week ending October 2.

The latest figures showed  there were 236 new admissions to hospital involving patients with Covid-19 in the week ending October 16 – although PHS said this figure was provisional and “should be treated with caution”.

Its report noted that no figures were available for two NHS boards, with figures for these areas from the previous week rolled forward.

Meanwhile, 12 coronavirus patients were admitted to intensive care in the week ending October 16.

And although this was down from 19 the previous week, PHS noted that Covid admissions to intensive care have been increasing again.

“Following a fall in cases since mid-July, the average number of admissions with Covid-19 has been increasing again since the start of September,” its report stated.

“In the week ending 16 October 2022 there were 12 admissions to ICU, a decrease of seven from the previous week (09 October 2022) when there were 19 admissions.”

Looking at vaccinations, the figures showed that by Sunday October 16 a total of 871,124 people had been vaccinated against coronavirus as part of the winter booster campaign.

The vast majority of people receiving a Covid booster jag were also vaccinated against flu at the same time, with 93.9% having both injections.