Peacetime excess deaths at their highest since 1891
6,324 more people than average died in 2020, the worst figures in 129 years
SCOTLAND recorded the highest number of peacetime excess deaths in 129 years in 2020 as the pandemic led to 6,324 more fatalities than the average of the previous five years.
The stark statistics, from the National Records of Scotland (NRS), have been labelled “absolutely tragic” and show a provisional total of 64,084 people who died last year – compared to an average of 57,760 in the previous five years – highlighting a staggering 6,324 excess deaths.
Of the 6,834 deaths involving Covid-19 between March and December 2020, 93 per cent had at least one pre-existing condition, with dementia and Alzheimer’s the most common.
Scottish Labour has claimed the SNP has been “slow to act and slow to learn from its mistakes”.
Excess deaths are a measure of how many more people than would have been expected, based on the previous five years of data.
The most recent NRS statistics show 7,448 people have now died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus.
Scottish Conservatives health spokesperson Donald Cameron said: “The number of excess deaths to occur in Scotland last year is absolutely tragic and my thoughts are with those who are grieving the loss of a loved ones.
“It is clear that there are serious questions for the SNP to answer as to why there have been so many deaths and why mistakes appear to have been made when it comes to protecting our most ‘at risk’ individuals.
“As we continue to fight rising hospital admissions, SNP ministers must guarantee that every measure has been put in place to stop the number of deaths from spiralling even higher.”
Scottish Labour interim leader Jackie Baillie said: “Scotland’s Covid-19 death rate is among the highest in the world, and our thoughts are with every family which has lost a loved one due to Covid-19 and the consequences of the pandemic. In many instances since last March, the SNP government has been slow to act and slow to learn from its mistakes.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned “there will be more to come” when asked about the record daily number of Covid-19 deaths, which reached a total of 1,820 across the UK yesterday.
The 1,820 people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as yesterday, brings the UK total to 93,290.
The sobering figures have been revealed as one of Nicola Sturgeon’s advisers and one of the country’s most prominent public health experts has claimed an independent Scotland would have handled the pandemic better.
Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University and a member of the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 Advisory Group, made the comments in an interview with Holyrood magazine.
She said people across the political spectrum have told her First Minister Nicola Sturgeon “has done a remarkable job”.
Asked by the magazine if she thought different decisions would have been taken in an independent Scotland with Ms Sturgeon in charge, Ms Sridhar said: “Yes, definitely.”
She added: “I think, yes, we could have hopefully been more like a Norway or a Denmark.
“Already, if you look at the charts and the devolved nations,
Scotland does come out in terms of lowest case numbers.”
Ms Sridhar warned “there are constraints” through devolution.
She added: “Any time you want to put in a package, an economic package, to be able to support hospitality because we have to shut it, it’s a negotiation at the start.
“That was a really stressful time, [asking] can we actually shut hospitality? Though we thought that was the right thing to do at the point from the Advisory Group perspective.
“So, yeah, I think it is really hard because we’re not getting the support that we require to be able to go the full way we want to go.”
But Mr Cameron, warned “the public don’t expect senior public health advisers to be wading into divisive political arguments”.
He added: “Devi Sridhar has previous form for making her own views known, when she should be remaining impartial at all times.
“Every time she offers a political opinion, it diminishes her professional opinion.
“Any discussion around Scotland being independent is a complete distraction from the public’s priorities, including wanting the SNP to speed up the vaccination programme, where they are straggling off the pace.”
The First Minister has defended Scotland’s rollout of the vaccine – stressing that prioritising care home residents means “you don’t do as many because it takes longer”.
The Conservatives have accused the First Minister of “sitting on” around 400,000 does of the vaccine.
But by the same method, the UK Government would be doing the same with millions of doses of the jag.
Based on the latest figures, an average of 399,625 first doses of vaccine would be needed each day to meet the Government’s target of 15 million first doses by February
15. So, on the current rollout, the total is short by more than 110,000 a day.
The First Minister confirmed that 309,909 people have received their first dose of the vaccine – while Scotland has around 700,000 doses allocated from the UK Government which has procured the jags on a four-nations basis.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney confirmed the entire 700,000 allocation of vaccines “has not arrived with us” from the UK Government and is yet to be distributed.
At First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon said Scotland is not “lagging behind” other parts of the UK, amid accusations from Conservative Holyrood leader, Ruth Davidson, who claimed that “hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses not reaching GPS and patients quickly enough”.
Ms Sturgeon stressed that the Scottish Government has “very deliberately focused first on elderly residents in care homes”.
She added: “The reason why the overall numbers are lower at this stage, because of that focus on care homes, is because it takes longer and is more labour intensive to vaccinate in care homes than in the community.”
More than 90% of elderly residents in Scottish care homes have now received their first dose of the jag.
The First Minister also said that the Astrazeneca vaccine, the one being used by GPS, “normally comes in packs of 100 doses”.
She added: “The shipment of supply into Scotland has not until recently delivered enough packs for all GPS to have one. We should of course remember that some GPS will require multiple packs, because their patient populations are bigger.
“The figure will be moving all the time, but, right now, 75% of GP practices either have or are in the process of getting supply. That figure will never be 100%, because not every GP practice is participating in vaccination.”
Ms Sturgeon added that “we are working to a target of vaccinating all over-80s” and all people on the priority list “by the first week in February”.
So far, around 20% of the over-80s group have been vaccinated.
But Ms Davidson stressed that the First Minister has carried out “a refinement” of original targets.
She pointed to comments made by Health Secretary Jeane Freeman on January 11 when she said: “We intend that by the end of this month, the very beginning of February,we will have vaccinated all residents in care homes and staff, all frontline health and social care workers and all those aged 80 or over.”