Covid hospital numbers fall as cases rise
SCOTLAND has recorded its highest daily number of positive Covid-19 cases in the past month.
The number of people in hospital, however, continues to fall, and while there was one more patient in intensive care, the pattern is of falling numbers.
Daily figures from the Scottish Government revealed that there have been 701 new positive Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
However, a note with the statistics says that 177 of the cases were duplicate historical cases from NHS Lothian, so when the totals of all health boards are added, the daily figure is 524.
There were 177 cases in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area included in the total.
Statistics showed that about one in every 275 people in Scotland has now had the coronavirus.
Figures showed that there had also been 10 new deaths registered, bringing the total number to 7572.
A total of 310 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 11 in 24 hours, and 32 patients in intensive care, an increase of one.
The daily test positivity rate was 2.4% – down from 3.1% on the previous day.
Statistics show that 2,285,711 people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccination. This is an increase of 36,099 on the previous day’s figures.
A total of 263,236 have now received their second dose.
Meanwhile, as the impact of the Covid lockdown has made one of the country’s most stubborn problems even worse a new report has found child poverty was increasing before the pandemic. A report has found that child poverty was increasing in Scotland before the pandemic hit.
The latest report found 26% of children were living in relative poverty in 2019/20, which is equal to around 260,000.
The figure is up from 23% in 2018/19, when around 230,000 children were living in relative poverty.
John Dickie, Child Poverty Action Group director, said: “It is utterly dismaying to see thousands more children across Scotland had been locked in poverty even before the pandemic struck.
“That so many more children face the daily stress of seeing their parents fret over paying bills, buying food or getting into debt should be a source of national shame.
“The good news on a day of dismaying statistics is that here in Scotland many families are now already benefiting from the Scottish Government’s new £10-a-week Scottish child payment.
“These new figures demonstrate why the payment needs to be at the very least doubled as the next vital step toward meeting the child poverty targets agreed by all the Holyrood parties.
“We need every level of government working together to end the scandal of child poverty in a rich country.”