Record number of Covid patients in intensive care in the NHS Highland health board area; news came as a further 44 people tested positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus in the past 24 hours
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
EIGHT Covid patients in the NHS Highland area are now in intensive care – the highest local number recorded during the entire pandemic.
The health board's number of intensive care patients increased by one, to eight, overnight. But the overall number of people being treated for the virus in NHS Highland hospitals has fallen sightly, after it dropped to 32 from 33 the previous day.
Meanwhile, 44 new positive tests for Covid-19 were recorded across the health board area in the past 24 hours.
The region’s cumulative number of cases passed the 3500 mark – to reach 3543 when the latest daily update was released.
Across Scotland there were 1656 new positive tests in the past 24 hours. This represented 7.5 per cent of all tests carried out.
The number of Scots in hospital with the coronavirus has passed the 2000 mark for the first time in the pandemic. There were 2003 patients who were receiving treatment for Covid-19 in the country’s hospitals last night, up 14 on the previous day.
Of those, some 156 were in intensive care – an increase of six.
And sadly a further 92 Covid-19 deaths were recorded in the past day.
Across the north of Scotland, every health board recorded new cases of the virus.
NHS Shetland’s cumulative total rose by three to 203, while two new cases were detected in NHS Orkney which has now recorded 53 infections overall.
In the Western Isles, NHS Eileanan Siar added four new positive tests overnight, for a cumulative total of 163.
NHS Grampian’s cumulative tally rose by 152 to 11,492.
And NHS Tayside recorded 144 new infections, for a running total of 11,198.
There have now been 166,583 confirmed coronavirus cases across Scotland since the start of the pandemic.
More than 25,000 people received their first Covid-19 vaccination jab yesterday. There have now been 309,909 first dose vaccinations so far.
Related news: Highland hospital Covid patient numbers almost double in a week
