More than 100 Covid-related care home deaths registered in week

Coronavirus contributed to the deaths of 113 care home residents registered during the first full week of the new year.

The total number of deaths in Scotland linked to the virus has now broken the 7000 milestone.

National Records of Scotland said a total of 384 death certificates mentioned Covid-19 between January 4-10.

The majority – 251 – were in hospitals, while 19 were at home or in community settings.

It brings the total number of coronavirus-related deaths, including those announced by the First Minister since January 10, to 7208.

Almost three-quarters (73%) of deaths in the week to January 10 were people aged 75 and over, and 9% were aged under 65.

By local authority area, the highest number of deaths occurred in North Lanarkshire at 53, followed by Glasgow at 50 and Edinburgh at 34.

Pete Whitehouse, NRS director of statistical services, said: “Each statistic represents the death of a loved one and heartbreak for families and friends across the country.

“As expected, the number of deaths registered in week one of 2021 is significantly higher than that of week 53 of 2020 as registrars have dealt with backlogs from the Christmas period.

“It is difficult to monitor trends in death registrations at this time of year due to the impact of public holidays on registration activity.

“Next week’s report will include analysis of deaths by date of occurrence, and this will give a clearer indication of the trend at the end of 2020.”

Scotland recorded 79 deaths of coronavirus patients and 1,949 new cases in the past 24 hours, Nicola Sturgeon announced.

Speaking at the start of First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, she said the daily test positivity rate was 10.2%, down from 12% on Tuesday, when 1875 positive cases were recorded.

A total of 155,372 people have tested positive in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.

There are 1794 people in hospital confirmed to have Covid-19, up 77 in 24 hours.

Of these patients, 134 are in intensive care, a rise of one in the same period.