Covid in Scotland: Number of deaths drops in Scotland

Most of the deaths related to Covid-19 last week happened in hospitals

The number of people dying from coronavirus in Scotland has fallen, according to the latest figures.

Data from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) showed that Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate of 161 people who died in September compared with 213 in August.

Those living in the most deprived areas were most at risk.

Throughout the pandemic, the highest rate of Covid-related deaths was in April 2020 when 2,413 people died.

Of the 15,794 people in Scotland whose deaths involved Covid-19, 93% (14,750) had at least one pre-existing condition, with the most common being dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

• Covid in Scotland: The latest cases

In both August and September, there were more deaths in men than women.

Figures from the first week of October showed that the number of death certificates mentioning Covid-19 had dropped again to 36, nine fewer than the previous week, however, the number of infections in Scotland is rising again.

Last week, six of the Covid deaths were in South Lanarkshire, and there were four each in the Glasgow and Edinburgh city council areas. Most deaths occurred in hospitals, six were in care homes, and four were at home or in a non-institutional setting.

Referring to the weekly figures, Pete Whitehouse, director of statistical services at NRS, said deaths from all causes in Scotland - 1,275 for that week - were still 15% higher than the five-year average.

"People living in the most deprived areas were 2.4 times as likely to die with Covid-19 as those in the least deprived areas," he said.

"The size of this gap slowly widened over the period of the pandemic but has narrowed since January 2022, when the gap was 2.5."

NRS said there had been nine deaths in Scotland in which the underlying cause of death adverse effects of a Covid-19 vaccination, with four further fatalities having an adverse effect mentioned on the death certificate.

By 30 September this year, statistics from Public Health Scotland showed 4.4 million people had been given at least one vaccine dose.