Landmark moment as number of positive tests tops 100,000

THE number of people in Scotland who have tested positive for coronavirus has passed the landmark 100,000 figure.

The grim toll came after 643 cases were recorded in 24 hours to yesterday. Five people who had tested positive in the previous 28 days also died.

In the past week, ,417 cases of coronavirus were recorded, taking the total to 100,106.

Scotland’s death toll now stands at 3,916.

The number of Scots who caught Covid-19 on hospital wards has exceeded 2,000, with 172 new ‘definite’ or ‘probable’ hospital-onset cases in the week ending November 8. That raised the total from 1,961 to 2,133 since March.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘With every passing week it is clear the SNP haven’t learnt lessons from the first wave about how to stop the virus spread in hospitals, with all the danger that poses for both patients and staff.

‘It’s critical that patients and staff have full confidence they won’t inadvertently catch Covid when in hospital for treatment and other procedures.’

The figures are published by Public Health Scotland.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Since the outbreak of the pandemic, we have worked hard to ensure that infection prevention and control measures in hospital and other care settings are robust and we expect our health boards to have the highest standards.

‘We are also already testing frontline staff where there is clinical advice to do so.’