Scotland and UK both suffer their deadliest day for coronavirus in six months

SCOTLAND has suffered its worst day for coronavirus deaths in almost six months, with 50 fatalities.

It was the highest figure since

May 20, when there also 50 deaths.

Revealing the data with “deep regret”, Nicola Sturgeon said it took the total for deaths from laboratory confirmed cases of Covid to 2,927.

However the weekly National Records of Scotland total up to last Sunday, which includes suspected as well as confirmed cases, found Covid had been recorded as a factor on 4,649 death certificates so far.

Of these, 167 were last week, up 61 on the previous week.

Ms Sturgeon warned Covid could “overwhelm” Scotland’s hospitals if there was not a “significant and sustained improvement” soon.

She said if the infection rate was not brought down “the risk we would bear is going deeper into the winter with a high baseline of infection and that would mean any increase in the R number could quickly see the virus overwhelm us and overwhelm our hospitals.

“Although we continue to see some positive signs in our data just now, and that’s all down to the sacrifices people across the country are making, we still are dealing with a very fragile and volatile situation.”

She said it was too soon to know if Wednesday’s high daily figure was part of a trend but stressed the number of deaths was not the most reliable indicator of Covid spread.

She added: “We’ll be monitoring the situation closely ahead of the first review of our new levels system next Tuesday.”

The UK as a whole also saw its highly daily death toll in almost six months yesterday, with 492 people dying within 28 days of a positive test, up from 397 on Tuesday.

The UK figure was the highest since 500 deaths on May 19, and brought the UK total to 47,742.

Earlier, Ms Sturgeon had told MSPS on Holyrood’s Covid-19 Committee that plans to roll out a Covid vaccine, whenever one is approved, were “well advanced”, with discussions on a four-nations basis about its allocation.

She said: “We have plans in place overseen by a programme board about how we will start to roll out a Covid vaccination programme.

“There are big uncertainties in that right now – we don’t know when a vaccine will be available and we don’t know yet the exact nature of the vaccine that will be available.

“So, will it be a vaccine that is prioritised firstly on elderly people, how many doses will be required?

“But the planning for that, insofar as it is possible with all of these uncertainties, is well advanced in Scotland and the discussions Uk-wide are well advanced, too.”

Also giving evidence, interim chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith said the UK had invested significantly in two projects that are entering phase three trials.

He said: “We continue to track exactly how those are going but we’re optimistic they are offering very encouraging signs that vaccines will become available to us.”

Talks were being held with local vaccine co-ordinators to ensure those who would benefit most will get any vaccine first, he said.