Covid hospital patient numbers return to record level in Scotland

The number of people in Scotland’s hospitals with recently confirmed Covid-19 has returned to the record high registered earlier this week, according to latest figures.

There were 2,383 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up two on the previous day and the same as the record high on Monday.

The Scottish Government figures showed there were 22 people in intensive care on March 31, down three on the day before.

Scotland has recorded 41 coronavirus-linked deaths and 6,935 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.

However, Public Health Scotland (PHS) said that due to timing of when the cases were processed on Friday morning, the newly-reported figures for the last 24 hours may be a little lower than expected and will be included within the next 24-hour reporting period (Saturday), which PHS will provide on Monday.

Scotland has seen its first week-on-week drop in Covid-19 infections after eight successive increases, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), although it describes the latest trend as “uncertain”.

Some 451,200 people were estimated to have had the virus in Scotland last week, or about one in 12.

This is down from 473,800 people, or one in 11, the previous week.

The new deaths that have been reported in Scotland bring the total number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus to 11,469.

So far 4,355,289 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 4,093,341 have received their second dose, and 3,452,587 have received a third dose or booster, the Scottish Government figures showed.