FIRST COVID-19 DEATHS FOR 6 WEEKS
TWO Covid deaths were registered in Scotland yesterday – the first in almost six weeks – as the number of confirmed cases of the virus came close to 20,000.
At First Minister’s Questions, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed another 67 new cases overnight and gave figures showing slight rises in the number of patients in hospital and intensive care.
The new cases bring Scotland’s total to 19,988 since the start of the outbreak and the number of confirmed deaths to 2494.
Sturgeon said: “This is the first time any newly registered deaths have been reported in our daily figures since July 16. I think all of us have been used to hearing news of no deaths in these daily figures.
“These two new deaths are of course devastating for those who will be grieving the loss but they should also be a reminder for all of us the threat of Covid hasn’t yet gone away.”
The National Records for Scotland figures for confirmed and suspected deaths were also released yesterday up to the period of August 23 and showed another six suspected deaths – an increase of three from the week before. Four of the six deaths were in care homes. Under the NRS calculation, there have now been 4222 deaths from Covid.
Sturgeon listed updates for the three main clusters in Scotland at the moment – at the 2 Sisters food production factory in Coupar Angus, Kingswell School in Dundee and the outbreak linked to Aberdeen pubs.
To date there have been 166 cases linked to the chicken factory – 146 workers and 20 people connected to
the workforce. However, Sturgeon said there had been no evidence of wider community transmission of the virus. In Dundee, two pupils were confirmed as having the virus out of the 31 cases at the special needs school.
A pupil in Primary 3 at the city’s St Clement’s RC Primary School has tested positive. Parents of pupils in P3 have been contacted by staff to advise their children should self-isolate until Tuesday, September 1.
In Aberdeen, there were no new cases overnight and the hospitality sector was due to re-open last night.