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

About this release

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.

Main points

Overall assessment for the period 22 May 2023 to 18 June 2023 (ISO week 21 to 24):

• Measures of community respiratory transmission suggest low levels of activity during the reporting period (NHS24, GP ILI and CARI primary care virology data).
• Virology data (non-sentinel) suggest influenza circulated at baseline levels during the reporting period. Adenovirus, parainfluenza, and rhinovirus circulated at higher levels than expected during the reporting period, breaching the thresholds for low activity for one or more weeks in this period.
• The overall number of emergency hospital admissions associated with RSV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2 have remained stable during the reporting period. SARS-CoV-2 remains the largest proportion of admissions. ICU/HDU admissions continue to be low.
• All-cause excess mortality remained within seasonal expectations, overall and for all age groups, during the reporting period. Data for the most recent two weeks is still provisional and should be treated with caution.
• During the current spring COVID-19 vaccination programme, a total of 480,990 COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to eligible adults currently resident in Scotland.

Background

Between 1 June and 5 October 2023, Public Health Scotland (PHS) will be providing a narrative report every four weeks (20 July, 17 August and 14 September), while continuing to update the interactive dashboard (external site), COVID-19 open data platform, and respiratory open data platform on a weekly basis at 9.30am every Thursday. This 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 and reinstate a weekly narrative report before 5 October 2023 if necessary. Weekly reporting will be reinstated on 5 October 2023. 

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 29 June 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