New system for recording deaths

Nicola Sturgeon has announced a new system will be introduced for recording coronavirus deaths in Scotland following a second delay in reporting accurate figures on the illness.

The first minister confirmed the number of individuals who have died a result of the virus has now reached 126, an increase of 50 from official figures released by the Scottish Government on Wednesday.

However, Ms Sturgeon confirmed the rise had been affected by a delay in deaths being confirmed by one Scottish laboratory and said further information would be made available on when the deaths had actually occurred.

The first minister said the upto-date figure includes 10 deaths over the past 24 hours, as well as a further 40 from previous days. It is the second major issue relating to official Scottish Government figures on the pandemic in as many days after a “data transfer issue”, again affecting only one laboratory, meant confirmed cases in Tayside almost doubled overnight on Tuesday.

Ms Sturgeon said the latest issue had been caused by the need for families to be notified and give consent before numbers can be properly updated but promised a new recording system means the issue should not arise again.

She said: “Part of the cruelty of this virus is when people are in hospital and when they’re dying, their family members are not able to be with them and therefore it is taking a bit longer for families to be informed and for them to give the consent to all of the things that are required.