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.

Main Points

Overall assessment 20 January 2025 to 26 January 2025 (ISO week 4):

• All syndromic indicators of circulating infectious respiratory conditions in the community continued to decrease in week 4, though GP attendances for influenza-like-illness remained at a higher activity level than the same week in previous seasons.
• Overall influenza-related hospital admissions in Scotland deceased by 38%, from 416 in week 3 to 258 in week 4, though with a small increase in influenza B admissions (from 33 to 43). Laboratory-confirmed influenza case numbers have continued to decline overall, to 557 in week 4; over five-times lower than the peak observed in week 52. Influenza B accounts for 27% (149 cases) of all influenza diagnoses reported this week, rising earlier than in previous seasons but still low overall.
• All-cause excess mortality for week 1 (the latest week not impacted by reporting delays) remained at moderate levels overall and in 65-plus age group, possibly due to higher rates of influenza, which peaked in the same week, and other non-respiratory-related causes including cold weather during that period.
• RSV continues to decline across all surveillance systems in the recent week. Emergency hospitalisations due to RSV decreased by 29%.
• COVID-19 signals remain low across all surveillance systems.
• Since the start of the winter 2024/25 vaccination programme in Scotland, uptake was highest in older care home residents (influenza: 84.7%; COVID-19: 82.7%), and among adults aged 75 years and older (influenza: 80.2%; and COVID-19: 76.5%). Around two thirds of those at-risk for influenza and three quarters of those at-risk for COVID-19 have not yet been vaccinated. Vaccine uptake is lower for both influenza and COVID-19 for all eligible groups when compared to the corresponding calendar week last year.

Contact

For all infectious disease respiratory enquiries, please email phs.flu@phs.scot. Please note that from 3 February 2025 all national respiratory infection enquiries should be directed to phs.respiratory@phs.scot

Further information

The next release will be 6 February 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