Viral respiratory diseases (including influenza and COVID-19) in Scotland surveillance report

About this release

This weekly release by Public Health Scotland presents epidemiological information on respiratory infection activity, including COVID-19, across Scotland.

Main points

Overall assessment for the period 14 August 2023 to 10 September 2023 (ISO week 33 to 36):

• Measures of respiratory symptoms in the community and via attendances at GP consultations show low levels of respiratory disease activity during the reporting period (NHS24 and GP ILI).
• In the CARI community surveillance system, Rhinovirus was the most commonly detected pathogen and swab positivity increased during the last four weeks from 19.0% in week 33 to 32.4% in week 36. This was followed by COVID-19, which has been fluctuating during the reporting period, but decreased overall from 13.8% in week 33 to 10.2% in week 36.
• Virology data suggest influenza circulated at Baseline activity level during the reporting period. Rhinovirus circulated at lower levels this reporting period and was at Moderate activity level by week 36.
• The overall number of emergency hospital admissions associated with RSV, influenza and COVID-19 have increased during the reporting period. COVID-19 remains the largest proportion of admissions. ICU/HDU admissions continue to be low.
• All-cause excess mortality remained within seasonal expectations, overall and for all age groups, during the reporting period. Data for the most recent two weeks is still provisional and should be treated with caution.

Background

As part of our continuous review of reporting, between 1 June and 5 October 2023, Public Health Scotland (PHS) will update the interactive dashboard, COVID-19 open data platform, and respiratory open data platform on a weekly basis at 9.30am every Thursday and provide a narrative report once a month.

This aligns to the pre-pandemic approach for other respiratory pathogens, which typically follow a seasonal pattern with most cases occurring between October and May. A return to weekly publications will resume on 12 October 2023.

PHS will continue to monitor COVID-19 and other respiratory infection levels and publish additional narrative reports if necessary.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 21 September 2023.

Find out more

Previous Publications

Versions of the Weekly national respiratory report publication released before 30 November 2022 may be found on the Public Health Scotland website.

Versions of the COVID-19 weekly statistical report publication released before 30 November 2022 may be found on the Public Health Scotland website.

Open data

Open data from this publication is available from the following weblinks:

• Viral respiratory diseases Open Data platform
• Flu and COVID vaccination uptake Open Data platform

Further data

• The COVID-19 Vaccine Wastage datafile was updated on 18 April 2024 to include the most recent information.
• The COVID-19 in Adult Care Homes in Scotland datafile was updated on 27 July 2023 to include more recent information.
• 28 September 2022 COVID-19 statistical report publication contains information on COVID-19 infection and vaccination in pregnancy in Scotland.
• 2 March 2022 COVID-19 statistical report publication contains information on Highest Risk (shielding patients list)
• 7 November 2023 Community Acute Respiratory Infection (CARI) surveillance in primary care contains information on flu Vaccine effectiveness in community settings.
• 25 May 2023 Interim 2022/23 influenza vaccine effectiveness: six European studies, October 2022 to January 2023, contains information on flu Vaccine effectiveness in hospital settings.
• 13 January 2024 Estimated number of lives directly saved by COVID-19 vaccination programs in the WHO European Region, December 2020 to March 2023, contains information on lives saved due to COVID-19 vaccination