Scots infections twice as high as rate in England
New York variant on way as virus cases soar to 250,000 in a week
ScOTLaND’S covid rate is double that of england with an estimated quarter of a million people infected last week.
South African variants BA 1.4 and BA 1.5 of the Omicron strain are dominant and still rising.
But worrying trends suggest the New York variant poses a real risk to growing infection numbers.
In Scotland for the week ending June 17, there was an increase in people testing positive, according to the Office for National Statistics.
It estimated 250,700 people, one in 20 people in Scotland, have the virus, up from the previous week’s one in 30.
In England, just one in 40 people had the virus last week and in Wales it was one in 45. Ireland also fared better than Scotland with one in 30.
Yesterday’s ONS figures cover infections in private households and do not include hospitals or care homes.
Kara Steel, senior statistician for the Covid-19 Infection Survey, said: “Rates have continued to rise across the UK, with the largest increase seen in Scotland.
“These increases are largely driven by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants. We will continue to closely monitor the data.”
Scottish Lib Dem leader and health spokesman Alex Cole Hamilton said: “These numbers are utterly depressing given all the sacrifices Scotland made over the last two years or longer, not least for the fact that this will lead to increased hospital admissions and further set back operations that have been missed during the pandemic.
“But the scariest thing about these numbers is not the Covid itself but what Covid could become.
“With 155,000 people already having Long Covid, that number is surely set to rise.
“The Government needs to recognise if our future is as an open society and living around Covid that they have to understand the consequences and properly fund Covid support.”
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie backed Professor Linda Bauld’s call for the JCVI to extend the vaccination booster programme to include everyone over 50. Baillie said: “I would support the addition of everyone over the age of 50 as well as those with underlying health conditions to be included, as it was the first time round.
“Some people have now not been vaccinated since November and immunity will be waning but Covid is sweeping the country so we need to act now.”