Covid-19 is once again surging through Scotland, with the country having experienced record days for infection rates last week.
In fact, Scotland even topped the WHO virus hotspot list, with six Scottish regions among the top 10 worst hit areas in Europe last week.
But where are Scotland's Covid-19 hotspots, and why is the infection rate so high across the country?
Where are Scotland's Covid hotspots?
When cases are particularly high per 100,000, the area is referred to as a Covid hotspot.
The hotspots in Scotland per 100,000 according to the World Health Organisation's data from the past 14 days are:
- Tayside with 1,199 cases per 100,000
- Lothian with 1,114 cases per 100,000
- North East with 905 cases per 100,000
- Greater Glasgow and Clyde with 850 cases per 100,000
- North West with 721 cases per 100,000
- Fife with 674 cases per 100,000
- Lanarkshire with 654 cases per 100,000
- Ayrshire and Arran with 617 cases per 100,000
- Grampian with 583 cases per 100,000
- Borders with 561 cases per 100,000
Why are Covid rates so high in Scotland?
According to Professor Jason Leitch, Covid rates in Scotland are currently so high due to a lack of "natural immunity".
Speaking to BBC Scotland, the national clinical director said that Scotland's infection rates were amongst the highest in Europe due to the Delta variant becoming seeded in Glasgow.
He said: "It’s got seeded into our biggest, dense city in Glasgow and we’ve got less natural immunity because we haven’t been at the top of this league table throughout the pandemic.
"It’s not a league table you want to top, and I want to get us off there as quick as we possibly can."
The Delta variant was quick to spread in Scotland but slower to reach other European countries, with Jason Leitch suggesting that these countries could begin to face further problems from the variant in the coming weeks.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel