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 24 February 2025 to 2 March 2025 (ISO week 9): 

• Syndromic indicators for respiratory infections in the community and in GP practices are all at baseline.
• Overall laboratory-confirmed influenza cases are decreasing this week, although influenza B cases have increased slightly for a second week. They now account for nearly 60% of total influenza cases. This increase is also observed in the community (CARI surveillance) where test positivity for influenza B has risen from 15.5% to 17.5%. This week, influenza-related hospital admissions in Scotland decreased by 42% (from 196 to 114), with influenza B admissions equalling influenza A admissions.
• RSV remains at baseline activity levels across all surveillance systems this week, with a significant decrease in four-week test positivity in CARI surveillance. Emergency hospitalisations with RSV continue to decrease, at 29 compared with 55 in the previous week.
• COVID-19 signals remain low and consistent across all surveillance systems, with no indication of the increase that was seen in last week’s laboratory data.
• All-cause excess mortality for week 6 (the latest week not impacted by reporting delays) remained at baseline overall and across age groups.

Further information

The next release will be 13 March 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