Surge in West Lothian cases

The latest data shows that West Lothian has had a significant spike in Covid-19 cases.

The Public Health Scotland (PHS) figures as of January 4 shows that there were 41 new reported positive cases of the virus and 321 over the past week.

This takes the total in the county to 4580 since the first positive test was returned in West Lothian on March 9 of last year.

When The Courier last reported on the PHS statistics on December 29, there were 155 over a seven-day period.

This means West Lothian has 175 cases per 100,000, which places the county under the national average of 279.

Unfortunately, this jump is also represented in the PHS heatmap of the 37 neighbourhoods in the county.

The virus is now only suppressed in three areas, Fauldhouse, Whitburn Central and Seafield.

West Calder and Polbeth sits in the highest zone, with over 400 people per 100,000 of the population testing positive, working out at 25 cases in the past week among their 5393 residents.

Another 13 neighbourhoods sit in the next highest zone with 200-399 positive cases per 100,000.

The First Minister warned today that the new strain of the virus is “completely different” from what they were dealing with last year.

Across Scotland a further 2529 people

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the number of total number of positive cases in Scotland to 139,027.

Nicola Sturgeon says new variant is responsible for 50 per cent per cent of new cases of Covid-19 in Scotland.

Of those, Ms Sturgeon says the provisional data shows that within NHS Lothian’s region 322 patients have tested positive for the new variant.

There have been no Covid-19 related deaths recorded in West Lothian over the past 10 days.

However, as witnessed with previous waves, deaths have followed infection rates rising.