As many as 2,133 Scots may have contracted Covid-19 while in hospital over the course of the pandemic this year, figures show.

The incubation period, which is the time between exposure to the virus and symptom onset, is on average 5-6 days, but can be as long as 14 days. 

As of November 8, Scotland had seen a total of 75, 173 cases of the virus and of those 1,571 patients (2.1%)  tested positive 15 or more days after being admitted to hospital, which means they are likely to have contracted Covid in wards.

A further 562 patients are defined as ‘probable’ hospital-onset cases in that they tested positive eight to 14 days after admission.

READ MORE: Cases of Covid 'spread like a cruise ship' after patients were transferred between hospitals 

In the case of 496 patients, the first positive specimen was recorded three to seven days after being admitted to hospital which means it id not possible to say conclusively where they contracted the virus.

The data shows that 4,899 cases were ‘non-hospital onset’. which means the first positive specimen was recorded on day 1or 2 of admission, meaning they are likely to have contracted the virus in the community.

The figures were compiled by the National Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland, which is responsible for tracking hospital acquired infections.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which is Scotland’s largest health board, recorded the highest number of definite or probable hospital-onset cases at 911, followed by Lothian (236) and Lanarkshire which recorded 206 cases.

A number of health boards had no ‘definite’ hospital acquired cases; Dumfries and Galloway,  Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

READ MORE: Patient died after infection intensive care spread as data shows toll of Covid hospital outbreaks 

In May, The Herald told how a decision to transfer elderly patients from Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to Gartnavel General is said to have led to cases spreading “like a cruise ship”. Whistleblowers claimed there had been been 25 deaths and 81 cases in a matter of weeks.

It is claimed that many patients had tested negative when they were admitted to Gartnavel but later developed the virus because there was “active infection” in the wards they were transferred to and they were not isolated on arrival.

A hospital source said at the time: “These aren’t people who came in with Covid, they came in with things like broken hips, falls, dementia etc, but they have been diagnosed with it in Gartnavel.”

NHS GGC said “a lot had been learned” about the transmission of the virus and said extra infection control measures were put in place when it was noticed there was a rise in cases at the west Glasgow hospital including the introduction of green, red and amber pathways to separate Covid from non-Covid patients.