Rate of confirmed coronavirus cases across Highland Council region climbs to highest level of the pandemic – 68.3 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people
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THE Covid-19 infection rate across Highland Council has risen to its highest level of the entire pandemic.
The council area recorded the equivalent of 68.3 confirmed cases for every 100,000 people in the seven days leading up to December 28 – the day for which the most recent data has been released.
That number is well up on the 12.3 cases per 100,000 which was being reported as recently as December 1, and is the highest confirmed rate posted in the Highlands at any point during the pandemic – although the number of tests being carried out in Scotland is much higher than in March's first wave.
And, while the Highland Council rate is also still well below the Scotland-wide figure of 159.4 cases per 100,000 people, it is growing closer to the 75 per 100,000 boundary between Level One and Level Two coronavirus restrictions.
All of mainland Scotland is currently sitting in Level Four until at least January 11, but Highland Council was in Level One before the 'temporary' move to near-lockdown in the run up to Christmas.
The latest rises are therefore likely to fuel concerns that Highland won't slot straight back into Level One when the measures are reviewed in January.
The increases also come amid wider pleas by both First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Highland Council leader Margaret Davidson for the public not to mix this Hogmanay. There are concerns that last week's Christmas gatherings and tonight's Hogmanay revelries will fuel a recent surge in Covid-19 cases across Scotland and the UK as a whole.
Meanwhile, the Inverness area had at least 61 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the seven days leading up to December 28, marginally up on the 59 positive tests recorded over the seven days up to December 27.
Related news: 81 new Covid-19 cases detected across NHS Highland area
