Covid in Scotland: Hospital patient numbers drop by 12%

There were fewer new admissions to Intensive Care Units with confirmed cases of Covid.

The number of patients in Scotland's hospitals with Covid has dropped by 12% in the last week, new figures show.

Public Health Scotland data shows that on average there were 1,461 patients in hospital with the virus in the week ending 31 July - down from 1,660.

There were also fewer new admissions to intensive care units.

There were 17 new admissions with confirmed cases of Covid during the same period, a decrease of 16 from the previous week.

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The number of Covid-19 infections in Scotland fell last week, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS Covid infection survey estimates there were about 272,000 people infected on any given day in the week up to 20 July - which is about one in 19 people.

In England, one in 20 people within the population tested positive, in Wales one in 19 people and in Northern Ireland one in 16.

It is the first fall since May, and suggests the latest wave driven by fast-spreading subvariants of Omicron have peaked.

Health officials believe the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of the Omicron strain are now the predominant variant in Scotland.

Around 3.2 million people in the UK had coronavirus in the week ending 20 July, down more than 500,000 from the week before.