Weekly coronavirus death figures continue to fall

The weekly death rate for coronavirus in Scotland continues to fall, according to the most recent figures.

In the week ending February 20, 75 deaths were registered that mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, down from 79 the week before, according to National Records of Scotland (NRS).

This means 13,235 Covid-related deaths have so far been registered in Scotland.

In the latest deaths, 37 were male and 38 were female.

Nine of those who died were aged under 65, 10 were 65-74 and there were 56 deaths in people aged 75 or over.

Fifty-one of the deaths occurred in hospitals, 17 were in care homes and seven were at home or in a non-institutional setting.

Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh, East Ayrshire, Fife, Glasgow, and Perth and Kinross had the highest number of deaths, with six recorded in each local authority area.

In total, 27 of the 32 council areas had at least one death last week, the figures showed.

Pete Whitehouse, director of statistical services at NRS, said: “The number of deaths from all causes registered in Scotland in this week was 1,152, which is 9% fewer than the five-year average.”

Meanwhile, the daily Covid figures published by the Scottish Government on Wednesday show 15 coronavirus-linked deaths and 6,756 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours.

There were 1,093 people in hospital on Tuesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 33 on the previous day, with 11 in intensive care, down one.

So far, 4,433,601 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 4,153,359 have had a second jab, and 3,410,555 have received a third dose or booster.

On Tuesday, Nicola Sturgeon said all legal restrictions in response to Covid-19 could end on March 21 if the downward trajectory of the virus continues.

But the First Minister told MSPs that Scotland would “retain a robust testing system” over the coming months, despite England looking to scrap it in the coming weeks.