Covid cases still rising ten days after restrictions ease

Coronavirus cases in Scotland are continuing to rise ten days after the country left the levels system of restrictions, according to the latest figures.

Daily data from the Scottish Government shows 3367 new cases were recorded on Thursday, taking the total number of people testing positive in Scotland to 373,143.

Seven deaths were also registered, taking the death toll under the daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 8058.

A total of 2538 new cases were recorded on Wednesday – the highest since even before the move to level zero, when there were 2636 cases on July 14.

Thursday marks the highest number of cases since 3799 were recorded the week before, on July 7.

Scotland moved beyond level zero of the restrictions on August 9, having entered the lowest tier of measures brought in as a result of the pandemic on July 19.

The daily test positivity rate is 9.0%, up from 7.5% the previous day.

A total of 317 people were in hospital on Wednesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down seven on the previous day, with 33 patients in intensive care, a fall of six.

So far, 4,068,806 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,512,673 have received their second dose.

Wednesday also brought the latest data from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) which showed 41 fatalities mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate registered in the week from August 9-15.

This was 12 fewer than the previous week and takes the total number of people who have died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus to 10,464.