COVID-19 statistical report
2 September 2020

About this release

This weekly release by Public Health Scotland presents data on COVID-19 across NHSScotland.

Main points

• Between 28 May to 30 August 2020, 2,961 individuals were recorded in the contact tracing software, from which 13,343 contacts have been traced.
• As at 30 August 2020, there have been 20,478 confirmed COVID-19 cases, equating to 375 confirmed cases per 100,000 population.
• As at 30 August 2020, 544,807 people in Scotland have tested negative.
• In the week ending 30th August 2020, there were 37 people aged 2-17 years in Scotland who tested positive for COVID-19, of 29,447 who were tested. By age group, positive cases represented 1 in 1,000 (0.1%) of children aged 2-4 years tested for COVID-19, 1 in 2,500 (0.04%) of those aged 5-11 years who were tested, and 3 in 1,000 (0.3%) of those aged 12-17 years tested.
• Between 1 March 2020 and 26 August 2020, there had been 5,985 admissions to hospital with a laboratory confirmed test of COVID-19, and 19 in the most recent week.
• As at 30 August 2020, 537 confirmed COVID-19 patients have been treated in an Intensive Care Unit. In the last week there were 3 patients who have ever been confirmed COVID-19 that were admitted to ICU.
• There were 213,901 people who arrived in Scotland from outside the UK from 22 June to 30 August, of which 58,827 were required to quarantine and 4,868 were contacted by the National Contact Tracing Centre.
• There has been a rise in the number of calls to the coronavirus helpline over the last two weeks, with a peak of 7,827 calls on 24 August. This increase is largely due to people requesting booking assistance to get a COVID-19 test and schools returning and increasing demand both with the helpline and at testing centres.

Wider impact detailed analysis

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a wider impact on health and care as a result of the lockdown, economic pressures and changes to health services.

A range of analyses on the impact of COVID-19 across aspects of NHS Scotland is available on the interactive information tool (external website).

Background

On 1 March 2020, the first person in Scotland was tested positive for COVID-19. On the 17 March NHS Scotland was placed in an emergency footing by the Cabinet Secretary. Schools closed on 20 March and the country went into lockdown on 23 March. Scotland entered phase one of easing out of lockdown on 29 May, phase two on 19 June and phase three on 10 July. Schools started to re-open from 11 August.

Since the start of the outbreak, Public Health Scotland (PHS) has been working closely with the Scottish Government and health and care colleagues to support the surveillance and monitoring of COVID-19 amongst the population. There is a large amount of data being regularly published regarding COVID-19. For example, Coronavirus in Scotland – Scottish Government (external website) and Deaths involving coronavirus in Scotland – National Records of Scotland (external website). This report complements the range of existing data currently available.