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. 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.

Between 24 April and 9 October 2025, PHS are reducing the frequency of the Viral respiratory diseases (including influenza and COVID-19) in Scotland narrative report to monthly. PHS will move to weekly dashboard only updates for respiratory infection and COVID-19 surveillance. This approach aligns to the pre-pandemic one for respiratory pathogens, which typically follow a seasonal pattern. PHS will continue to monitor COVID-19 and other respiratory infection levels and reinstate the weekly narrative report before 9 October 2025 if necessary.

National Services Scotland (NSS) is experiencing digital infrastructure issues this week, affecting access to COVID-19 laboratory data and hospital admissions files from NHS boards. As a result, these data are not included in this week's published report but will be updated in next week's report. However, if they become available prior to next week's publication, they will be released via the PHS dashboard.

Main Points

Overall assessment 17 March 2025 to 23 March 2025 (ISO week 12): 

• Syndromic indicators for respiratory infections in the community and in GP practices are all at baseline.
• The overall number of laboratory-confirmed influenza cases (routine community and hospital settings) increased slightly in week 12, just reaching the threshold for a moderate level of activity (7.3% test positivity). Although the number of influenza B cases has declined for a number of weeks now, it still accounts for the majority of the total of laboratory influenza detections (56.3%). Unlike in the non-sentinel sites, influenza B test positivity has increased again in the CARI community system this week (at 13.1% from 10.8% last week).
• RSV signals remain low and consistent across all surveillance systems this week.
• In the CARI community surveillance system, there has been a continuing slight increase week-on-week of COVID-19 (3.6% test positivity, from 1.8%), although overall levels remain very low.
• All-cause excess mortality for week 9 (the latest week not impacted by reporting delays) remained at baseline overall and across age groups.

Further information

The next release will be 3 April 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