Viral respiratory diseases in Scotland surveillance report

About this release

As part of Public Health Scotland’s commitment to providing clear, concise and accessible viral respiratory data, there have been some improvements to the presentation this season’s viral respiratory report. These have included updates to the accessibility of figures presented in the report and a change in the title of the report from Viral respiratory diseases (including influenza and COVID-19) in Scotland surveillance report to Viral respiratory diseases in Scotland surveillance report.

This weekly release by Public Health Scotland presents epidemiological information on respiratory infection activity, including COVID-19, across Scotland. Due to the dynamic nature of all datasets included in this report, figures contained within each update may be subject to change in future releases. Any revised figures will then be reflected within the latest update.

Main points

For the period, 20 October 2025 to 26 October 2025 (ISO week 43):

• Calls to NHS 24 for respiratory symptoms and patient attendance at GP practices for influenza-like illness and acute respiratory infection remain at baseline level, usual for this time of year.
• Influenza activity in Scotland remains at baseline level and has been relatively stable in measures of laboratory-confirmed cases and CARI since an early seasonal rise was observed in week 40. Hospital admissions increased this week to 90 (from 72), which may reflect the earlier increase in influenza activity, as admissions due to influenza typically lag behind a reported rise in community and laboratory cases. Just over half (54%) of influenza admissions were among those age 65 years and older. Laboratory confirmed cases and test positivity increased slightly in week 43 (156 cases, 3.9% test positivity) compared to the previous week (135 cases, 3.5% test positivity). In the CARI surveillance system, whilst there was a decrease in weekly test positivity for influenza, a significant increase in 4-weekly test positivity (at 9.8%, from 2.1%) shows the month-to-month comparison, capturing the early season activity previously noted.
• COVID-19 activity continued to decrease or remain stable across all system measures, including hospital admissions. COVID-19 activity is lower than measures from the same week in the two previous seasons.
• Laboratory confirmed RSV activity remained stable and at baseline levels following a slight increase in activity last week. Lower levels of cases and test positivity have been observed compared to the same week in previous seasons. Hospital admissions due to RSV increased slightly to 36 (from 31) with around 80% of cases in the 0-4 age group. Admissions are still lower than during the same week in the previous two seasons.

Further information

The next release will be on 6 November 2025.

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