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Daily COVID-19 Cases in Scotland

In the process of updating the hospital admissions reporting to include reinfections, we have had to review existing methodology. In order to provide the best possible linkage of COVID-19 cases to hospital admissions, each admission record is required to have a discharge date, to allow us to better match the most appropriate COVID positive episode details to an admission. This means that in cases where the discharge date is missing (either due to the patient still being treated, delays in discharge information being submitted or data quality issues), it has to be estimated. Estimating a discharge date for historic records means that the average stay for those with missing dates is reduced, and fewer stays overlap with records of positive tests.

The result of these changes has meant that approximately 1,200 historic COVID admissions have been removed due to improvements in methodology to handle missing discharge dates, while approximately 820 have been added to the cumulative total with the inclusion of reinfections.

COVID-19 hospital admissions are now identified as the following: A patient's first positive PCR or LFD test of the episode of infection (including reinfections at 90 days or more) for COVID-19 up to 14 days prior to admission to hospital, on the day of their admission or during their stay in hospital. If a patient's first positive PCR or LFD test of the episode of infection is after their date of discharge from hospital, they are not included in the analysis.

To allow new data to be fully processed and available at 14:00, the Daily COVID-19 in Scotland and COVID-19 Vaccination in Scotland datasets will be temporarily unavailable from 12:45 to 14:00. During this window, the datasets will not be visible and any queries made to these datasets will return a 404 – Not found error. At all other times the datasets will be available in full as usual.

This dataset provides information on number of new daily confirmed cases, negative cases, deaths, testing by NHS Labs (Pillar 1) and UK Government (Pillar 2), new hospital admissions and new ICU admissions from novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, including cumulative totals and population rates at Scotland, NHS Board and Council Area levels (where possible). Seven day positive cases and population rates are also presented by Neighbourhood Area (Intermediate Zone 2011). Information on how PHS publish small are COVID figures is available on the PHS website.

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. Clinical presentation may range from mild-to-moderate illness to pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 12 March 2020. We now have spread of COVID-19 within communities in the UK.

Information on COVID-19, including stay at home advice for people who are self-isolating and their households, can be found on NHS Inform.

Data visualisation of Scottish COVID-19 cases is available on the Public Health Scotland - Covid 19 Scotland dashboard.

Further information on coronavirus in Scotland is available on the Scottish Government – Coronavirus in Scotland page, where further breakdown of coronavirus data is also published daily.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source Case data reported by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) from a laboratory confirmed report , deaths from NRS records where a person has died within 28 days of a laboratory confirmed report of COVID-19. Testing data from NHS Scotland Electronic Communication of Surveillance in Scotland (ECOSS). Hospital admissions from RAPID dataset, ICU admissions from Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group (SICSAG), linked to ECOSS testing data. PCR data from UK Gov and NHS Labs, LFD data from self reporting portal and UK Gov.
Author PHS Open Data Team
Last Updated May 19, 2022, 14:00 (BST)
Created April 22, 2020, 13:47 (BST)
Contact Address Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 9EB
Subject Coronavirus
Frequency Daily
Time frame of data and timeliness Case count is number of cases reported to HPS within a 24 hour period, published at 14:00 (GMT) daily.
Coverage All cases in Scotland reported to Health Protection Scotland, including UK Government testing sites data.
Completeness A small number of records do not have a Community Health Index (CHI) number attached. Where possible these cases are included in headline national level figures, but it is not possible to report them in area or demographic breakdowns or where linkage is required (deaths and hospital/ICU admissions). Testing data includes PCR tests only processed through NHS Scotland laboratories and UK Government Regional Testing Centre (RTC) laboratories, including Drive Through Centres and Mobile Units, and Home Testing kits. If an individual is tested in both the NHS laboratory and a UK Govt testing centres, when reporting on total number of cases, the specimen that was taken first is counted to avoid double counting of individuals. There is a reporting delay in testing results, so data on tests carried out in the most recent 2-3 days will be incomplete; on average 90% of tests carried out are reported in the system within 2 days. The 7 day figures for cases and tests are presented with a lag to ensure only the most recent complete data is shown.
Accuracy There may be some minor fluctuations in the daily number of cases due to laboratory reporting delays and additional information becoming available, in which case the data is revised in a future next update. ICU Admissions: On 30th October it came to our attention that there is an ongoing issue when linking ICU data to the lab data for COVID-19 test results. Any COVID-19 positive patients with a missing CHI that had a first positive test in the community are unable to be linked to the ICU data. As a result the COVID-19 positive numbers could be underreported by a small number. RAPID is a daily submission of people who have been admitted and discharged to hospital. Figures are subject to change as hospital records are updated. In can take 6-8 weeks or longer before a record is finalised, particularly discharge details. The 7 day figures for hospital admissions are presented with a lag to ensure only the most recent complete data is shown.
Continuity of data Data collection changed from lab reported line listings to an ECOSS feed on 21st March. From 18 June, the data released includes testing results from the UK Government’s Regional Testing Centres, as well as data from NHS Laboratories, including historic test results. Introducing the UK Government sites data has accounted for approximately 2.500 positive cases since the start of March. No dates were available in the UK Government Testing site data from 15-25 April. These samples have been assigned a specimen date in the midpoint of this date range (20 April), which causes an artificial spike in the daily trend data. Positive cases are assigned to Local Authorities and neighbourhoods using the postcode attached to the test, or if that is not available the usual residential postcode held centrally (on the Community Health Index – CHI - database). Therefore, if an individual changes postcode on CHI they may change Local Authority area. The CHI database is updated monthly. This may affect trend comparisons for the numbers of cases tested by Local Authority. To ensure we continue to provide the most accurate and timely information for identifying and linking COVID-19 positive cases to other data sources e.g. deaths and hospital admissions. From 28th July PHS will move to using an improved methodology.
Concepts and definitions Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. Clinical presentation may range from mild-to-moderate illness to pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 12 March 2020. Case data is based on cases reported to HPS by diagnostic laboratories within a 24 hour period. “New” cases, tests, deaths and hospital admission figures reported on a daily basis may see small changes retrospectively due to the dynamic nature of the source data. This means on a single day the cumulative total may not match the sum of that day’s new cases reported within 24 hours and the day priors reported cumulative total. “New” figures can include historic data due to reporting delays, which means that the figure reported may not correspond exactly to trend charts (which are based on the date of test, date of death or hospital/ICU admission date).
Disclosure Suppression of values 0-2 for 7 day counts of positive cases by neighbourhood area.
Revision statement There may be some minor fluctuations in the daily number of cases due to laboratory reporting delays and additional information becoming available, in which case the data is revised in a future next update. There may also occasionally be adjustments to records, which slightly change figures reported previously and can for example cause a drop in cumulative count for a particular area. All trend files are refreshed daily to take into account historic changes.
Format csv
Language English
Links

Public Health Scotland - Covid 19 Scotland dashboard

PHS - Publishing small area COVID figures

NHS Inform - Coronavirus

Scottish Government – Coronavirus in Scotland

Scottish Government – Coronavirus: daily data for Scotland

Public Health England COVID-19 Dashboard

Public Health Wales COVID-19 Dashboard

Northern Ireland COVID-19 Statistics Portal
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