Viral Respiratory Diseases (Including Influenza and COVID-19) Data in Scotland

Tracking infectious respiratory diseases, including COVID-19 and influenza, is essential, especially in the winter when the disease burden is usually highest. In Scotland, respiratory infection and associated morbidity are monitored using enhanced surveillance. This approach combines data from microbiological sampling and laboratory test results from community and hospital settings with data from syndromic surveillance of NHS 24 calls, primary care consultations for respiratory symptoms, hospital (including intensive care) admissions and other settings.

The intelligence generated from surveillance of laboratory, syndromic and settings provide a comprehensive picture of current respiratory illness in Scotland. The key non-Covid/influenza respiratory pathogens include adenovirus, seasonal coronaviruses (non-COVID-19), human metapneumovirus (HMPV), human parainfluenza virus (HPIV), Mycoplasma pneumoniae, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rhinovirus. These mostly cause mild upper respiratory tract symptoms, such as the common cold, but infection can sometimes lead to more severe lower respiratory tract complications, especially in young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.

Symptoms may also include a variety of non-respiratory presentations. __Major changes were made to this dataset in October 2025.__ Aim was to expand the amount of detail available for COVID-19 to other respiratory conditions, providing more consistency, and to archive some of the COVID-19 data that was relevant to an emerging infection but no longer adds value. __Changes include:__

• We now provide counts and population rates of laboratory-confirmed cases for all 9 viral respiratory pathogens (with influenza split by A and B) at Scotland level, and broken down by age and sex. Breakdowns by NHS Board and by SIMD quintile are available for COVID-19, Influenza and RSV only due to the large differences in testing policies between NHS Boards for conditions other than these main three. A breakdown by Local Authority is currently available for COVID-19 only.
• Counts of hospital admission for those with positive laboratory tests, including population rates, are now provided for all 9 pathogens with largely the same breakdowns as for Cases, although age-sex and SIMD breakdowns will be delivered for the remaining 6 conditions at a later stage. The average length of stay for hospital admission is also now provided, broken down by age group (added December 2025).
• New are numbers of tests and test positivity as derived from the Community Acute Respiratory Infection (CARI) programme, broken down by age, sex and NHS Board.
• Numbers of tests and test positivity are provided for influenza, COVID-19 and RSV, separate from case counts, including broken down by age group (breakdowns by Board and SIMD are so far only for Covid).
• Bed occupancy is now derived from Rapid Preliminary Inpatient Data (RAPID) for influenza, COVID-19 and RSV (breakdowns by age group, NHS Board and SIMD only for Covid). Occupancy data as collected by Boards previously will still be available in the archive.
• All cumulative figures as provided for COVID-19 are no longer updated and moved to the archive, as this is no longer relevant.
• The file ‘Care Home Time Series’ will no longer be maintained and is hence moved to the archive. Newly added in September 2026 is Scotland-level data on number of ICU/HDU admissions of patients with community-acquired COVID-19, influenza A, influenza B, RSV and other respiratory pathogens. Latest guidance from NHS Scotland on managing various respiratory infections can be found here on NHS Inform. Further information from the Scottish Government on coronavirus and other respiratory infections is available on the Coronavirus and other respiratory infections in Scotland page. *Due to on-going technical issues we will unfortunately be unable to publish as planned at 0930 Thursday 1 October. Please note that there is no unusual activity identified from the data that have been received this week. We will announce the new publication date shortly and aim to release as soon as possible.*