Coronavirus deaths in Scotland rise by 24

ANOTHER 24 people with coronavirus have died in Scotland, taking the total number of confirmed deaths to 566.

The Scottish Government’s figures revealed that 31,114 tests have now been carried out across Scotland, which is an additional 1,211 tests in the past 24 hours.

A total of 5,912 people have tested positive for the virus.

On Saturday night, there were 1,755 people in Scottish hospitals with either confirmed or suspected symptoms of Covid19, a fall of 100 patients.

Of those, 221 were being treated in intensive care, nine higher than on Friday.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman, who was chairing the Scottish Government’s daily coronavirus briefing, said that the figures were likely to be an underestimate and lower due to fewer deaths being recorded over the weekend.

She said: “It is with sadness that I can report that a further 24 deaths have been registered of people who have tested positive for Covid-19.

“That takes the total number of deaths in Scotland to 566.

“This number is lower than in previous days and should be treated with some caution. People can now register deaths at weekends as part of our move towards seven-day-a-week registration, and I’m grateful to local authority staff for working with us to make that possible.

“However, we expect that registration numbers will still be relatively low over Easter and this should be taken into account when looking at today’s figures, and also the numbers for the days following this weekend.”

Ms Freeman also announced that the Scottish Government has agreed with Cosla [the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities] that people working in adult social care will be paid at least the real living wage, which is currently calculated at £9.30 per hour. The pay rise was said to take effect immediately.

It was revealed the Scottish Government and Cosla have also agreed funding for sick pay in cases where care workers are ill or self-isolating.

She also revealed that more than 8,000 care workers or people in their household had been tested for coronavirus, as of Friday.

The Scottish Government figures show that approximately 4.5% of NHS Scotland staff – 7,406 workers – were absent on Saturday for reasons relating to coronavirus. This is a slight decrease from the absentee figures on Friday, when a total of 7,658 were off.