COVID-19 statistical report
As at 6 December 2021

About this release

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

Main points

• As at 05 December 2021, there have been 743,496 confirmed COVID-19 cases; 16,121 of these were recorded in the most recent week, a decrease of 9.8% from the previous week.
• In the week ending 28 November 2021, 17,629 individuals were recorded in the contact tracing software, from which 25,478 unique contacts have been traced.

• In the week ending 30 November 2021, there were 429 admissions to hospital with a laboratory confirmed test of COVID-19. The highest number of new admissions are now in those aged 30-39.
• The proportion of all people who were admitted to hospital within 14 days of a laboratory confirmed COVID-19 positive test has declined, from 12% in the week ending 31 January 2021, to 3% in the most recent week ending 21 November 2021.
• In the week ending 05 December 2021 there were 26 new admissions to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) for confirmed COVID-19. This is a decrease of 36.6% from the week ending 28 November 2021.
• Public Health Scotland has identified a total of 5,653 confirmed cases of COVID-19 occurring in pregnant women from the start of the pandemic until 31st October 2021.
• Vaccination coverage remains much lower amongst pregnant women than amongst non-pregnant women of a comparable age; of the 4,064 women who delivered their baby in October 2021, 43% had received any COVID-19 vaccination prior to delivery. By contrast, 85% of all women aged 18 to 44 years had received any COVID-19 vaccination by 31st October 2021.
• The rate of stillbirth and neonatal death among babies born within 28 days of their mother having confirmed COVID-19 during pregnancy was 20.5 per 1,000 total births, and 4.3 per 1,000 total births among babies born within 28 days of their mother receiving COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. It cannot be assumed that deaths following maternal COVID-19 infection or vaccination are related to those events; stillbirth and neonatal death can occur for a wide range of reasons.  It is important to also consider that 6.3 per 1,000 of all births registered in Scotland in 2020 resulted in stillbirth or neonatal death.  Vaccination remains the safest and most effective way for women to protect themselves and their babies against COVID 19 infection.

Additional charts and data are available to view in the interactive dashboard accompanying this report.

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

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.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 15 December 2021.