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

About this release

REVISION 23 August 2023: Due to an additional narrative report being scheduled for publication on 31 August 2023. All documentation has been updated and marked with R superscript to reflect this change in publication schedule. No other content or data within this report has changed with this revision.

This is a weekly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) on epidemiological information on seasonal respiratory infection activity in Scotland including COVID-19.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care services have functioned differently now compared to previous respiratory seasons, so the consultation rates are not directly comparable to historical data.

Background

Public Health Scotland (PHS) will provide its final monthly narrative report on 14 September 2023. The weekly narrative report will be reinstated on 12 October 2023. PHS’s interactive dashboard, COVID-19 open data platform, and respiratory open data platform will continue to be updated on a weekly basis at 9.30am every Thursday.

This publication approach aligns to the pre-pandemic reporting schedule for respiratory pathogens, which typically follow a seasonal pattern with most cases occurring between October and May. PHS will continue to monitor COVID-19 and other respiratory infection levels in non-reporting weeks.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 24 August 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