Another Scottish death as number of Covid patients in hospital tops 1,000

One further death from coronavirus has been recorded in Scotland in the past 24 hours, as the number of cases in hospital hit more than 1,000.

Scottish Government data shows the number of confirmed cases in hospital at 1,016, a number more than double that of two weeks ago.

On October 11, 449 cases were confirmed in Scotland’s hospitals and the number of people being cared for has grown rapidly from just 45 on September 11.

The number of confirmed cases in the general population also grew, by 1,303 to 56,752.

Of the newly-confirmed cases, 437 were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area, 341 in Lanarkshire, 155 in Lothian and 132 in Ayrshire and Arran. Only the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland did not report a single case.

A total of 2,700 people have now died after testing positive for Covid-19 in Scotland.

Along with the rise in the number of cases in hospital, two more people with Covid-19 were in intensive care, taking the total to 86.

It comes as Education Secretary John Swinney said the return of students to university after spending Christmas at home could be staggered.

The beginning of the academic year saw thousands of students enter halls of residence before hundreds of them were forced to isolate due to a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Mr Swinney said that the Scottish Government is “learning lessons” from the return of students which will impact measures in place after the Christmas break.

The education secretary also said it was a “priority” that students are able to go home for Christmas and he was working with other UK nations to ensure that does not result in a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Addressing the return of students, he told the BBC’s Politics Scotland

programme: “Some of the points that we’re looking at are around staggered returns of students so that they don’t all come back in one go, that we look at arrangements for how testing can be part of the architecture of how we handle that return.

“Wh at we expect of students when they are returning home and when they’re coming back into universities and how they will spend their time, how their learning will be undertaken – these are all issues that are being explored.”

Mr Swinney went on to say that a system of mass testing , bolstered by a staggered return of students ensuring the

system does not become overwhelmed, was being discussed as an option. He said: “These are some of the options that are being looked at and obviously... the practicalities of that are changed and eased if the return of students is staggered over a longer period.”

Mr Swinney added: “We ’ r e working with institutions because they have to be partners with us in how the learning is undertaken over that period to make sure that we avoid any situation where there is too much strain either on the testing system or there is too much strain on the possibility of the circulation of the virus when students return or,

for that matter, when they return to their homes in the first place.”

A new five-tiered system of restrictions was unveiled by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Friday, which would see a shifting package of measures put on different local authority areas depending on the prevalence of the virus.

However, schools are to remain open under the new framework, which will be debated by MSPs this week.

Mr Swinney said the decision could be made to close a singular school for public health reasons, but that there were “many steps” which could be taken before schools will be shuttered as they were in March.

UNIVERSITIES: John Swinney said students’ return after Christmas could be staggered.