Weekly virus death toll is down for first time

First minister tells of a ‘critical moment’, with figures going in right direction but need to persist with measures

The weekly coronavirus death toll in Scotland has fallen for the first time, figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show.

There were 523 deaths relating to Covid-19 registered between April 27 and May 3, a fall of 135 from the week of April 20-26, according to the NRS.

A total of 2,795 deaths involving the virus had been recorded as of Sunday, with the proportion of coronavirus deaths recorded in care homes rising on last week to 59%.

The figures were released as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon urged Scots to stick with the lockdown measures, saying they risked a resurgence if people moved to return to their normal lives too soon.

The Scottish Government has published possible options for lifting some of the measures, but yesterday she said “the more we stick with it in the immediate days ahead, the easier and the quicker that will be”.

The data is published weekly and accounts for all fatalities registered in Scotland where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate.

They differ from the lab-confirmed coronavirus deaths announced daily by the Scottish Government using Health Protection Scotland (HPS) figures because they include suspected or probable cases of Covid-19.

Ms Sturgeon said 1,703 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up 83 from 1,620 on Tuesday.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, she said 12,709 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 272 from 12,437 the day before.

There are 89 people in intensive care with coronavirus or symptoms and 1,632 in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19.

According to the NRS, of the deaths involving coronavirus registered in the week of April 27 to May 3, 59% were in care homes, compared to 52% the previous week.

The figures show 37% of registered deaths involving Covid-19 were in hospitals and 4% were at home or noninstitutional settings, compared to 42% and 6% the previous week.

The total of all deaths registered in Scotland from April 27 to May 3 was 1,673, 55% more than the average registered in the same week over the last five years, which was 1,079.

April 20-26 was nearly 68% higher than the five-year weekly average.

Covid-19 was the underlying cause of death in 83% of the 594 excess deaths, down from 85% the previous week.

Three-quarters of registered deaths involving Covid-19 to date were people aged 75 or over.

Ahead of the figures being released, Ms Sturgeon accepted some members of the public were “frustrated” at the lockdown measures, which were imposed more than six weeks ago.

However, she said most people who have got in touch with her have said: “Please don’t lift this prematurely and risk a resurgence.”

She told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland that polling data shows “support for these measures remains very, very high”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “We’re at such a critical moment now. Every day I am able to look at data that says we are going in the right direction, but we haven’t gone yet sufficiently in the right direction to be confident that easing up won’t send us back.

“With every day that passes hopefully that position gets stronger and more certain, and so I want to start getting us back to some semblance of normality as quickly as possible. So the more we stick with it in the immediate days ahead, the easier and the quicker that will be,” she said.

Lockdown measures are due to be reviewed formally today but Ms Sturgeon has already warned it is unlikely significant changes will be made.

She said even when rules are eased, measures such as social distancing and wearing face coverings where appropriate will be even more important.

The first minister said: “We are all going to continue to have social distancing as we get back to work, as life starts to get back to normal, social distancing, hygiene, wearing face coverings where it is appropriate, all of that becomes more important as we start to interact more with each other.”