Scottish Covid-19 cases rise bythird in a week

Cases of Covid-19 rose by almost a third in Scotland last week, according to the latest figures.

There were 15,541 cases reported in the week to June 19, up 30.5% from the previous week when there were 11,909, data from Public Health Scotland (PHS) shows.

The number of Covid patients newly admitted to hospital also increased, rising to 696 in the week ending June 14 – up 15.2% on the week before.

In the seven days to June 19, 20 people were admitted to intensive care units, one more than the previous seven-day period.

It comes as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) elevated Omicron BA.4 and Omicron BA.5 to the status of “variants of concern” on the basis of observed growth.

PHS said it “continues to monitor Covid-19 variants of concern, in collaboration with other public health agencies in the UK”.

The PHS report said 15.5% of all cases reported in the week to June 19 were thought to be reinfections.

Over that week, the 40-49 age group had the highest proportion of reported cases.

The highest proportion of people admitted to hospital were those aged 80 and over (26.9%) in the week to June 14.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week said the number of Scots believed to have Covid had increased to one in 30 – up from one in 40 the previous week.

The ONS estimates that in the week ending June 11, 176,900 people in Scotland had the virus – about 3.36% of the population. In England, it is believed one in 50 people had coronavirus in the week ending June 11, while one in 45 had the virus in both Wales and Northern Ireland.