Scotland still has highest Covid infection rate in the UK
- Published
Scotland continues to have the highest level of coronavirus cases in the UK, according to the latest figures.
The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey, external estimated about one in 45 had Covid in the week ending 11 September.
This was the second week in a row it has been at the highest level since estimates began a year ago.
The data showed the figure for England was one in 80 people, Wales was one in 60 and Northern Ireland was one in 75.
The figure for England was down on the previous week, as was Northern Ireland. The rate in Wales was up on the week before.
All figures are for people living in private households and exclude hospitals and care homes.
The Scottish figure is the equivalent of about 120,800 people.
Scotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch, said the ONS survey data gave an indication of the situation a week or 10 days ago.
He told BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme: "These are not entirely unexpected. These are what we were seeing in the daily cases a week to 10 days ago.
"We've now seen quite a lot of improvement since then. We're not complacent - it's still too high - but I would expect another week of this door to door survey will then begin to replicate what we've seen, with Scotland falling and other countries, unfortunately, just accelerating a little."
The latest daily figures show there are 1,037 people in hospital, however, that figure has dropped for two days in a row, the first time that has happened for a month.
According to the daily figures, there were 5,529 new cases reported on Friday, after a technical issue affected Thursday's data.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter: "Cases - while high - still appear to be on a downward track".
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- Published13 January 2023
