Viral respiratory diseases in Scotland surveillance report

About this release

As part of Public Health Scotland’s commitment to providing clear, concise and accessible viral respiratory data, there have been some improvements to the presentation this season’s viral respiratory report. These have included updates to the accessibility of figures presented in the report and a change in the title of the report from Viral respiratory diseases (including influenza and COVID-19) in Scotland surveillance report to Viral respiratory diseases in Scotland surveillance report.

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

For the period, 27 October 2025 to 2 November 2025 (ISO week 44):

• Patient attendance at GP practices for influenza-like illness and acute respiratory infection remain at baseline level, usual for this time of year.
• Following an early start to the influenza season with a drifted strain of influenza A(H3N2) predominating, laboratory diagnoses of influenza in Scotland have continued to increase in week 44. Although overall activity remains at baseline, the sharpest increase and highest levels of test positivity are seen in the 5-14 age group (20.7%). CARI surveillance has also shown a statistically significant increase across the first four weeks of the season (10.8% vs 4.3% in preceding period). Hospital admissions have also increased further, from 94 to 108.
• COVID-19 activity continued to decrease or remain stable across all system measures, including hospital admissions.
• Despite a small but continued increase in week 44, laboratory confirmed RSV activity remained at baseline levels overall and across age groups, with all indicators remaining below those of the same week in previous seasons. Test positivity increased in the under 1 and 1-4 age groups, which is typical of RSV seasonality as levels tend to increase in the youngest age groups first before spreading to older adults. Hospital admissions due to RSV increased to 48 (from 39) with around 95% of cases in the 0-4 age group.
• Parainfluenza increased to a low activity level via laboratory surveillance and test positivity increased (to 6.6% from 5.0%) via CARI surveillance. All other pathogens remained stable across all surveillance systems.

Further information

The next release will be on 13 November 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