ARCHIVED - COVID-19 Statistical Data in Scotland

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.