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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Claire McKim

Covid Scotland: Only one Edinburgh neighbourhood remains a 'hotspot'

An area of Edinburgh is currently the city's last remaining Covid hotspot, according to the latest data.

Statistics from Public Health Scotland show that Mortonhall, to the south of the city, had an infection rate of 445 per 100,000 people during the week to May 16.

The figure puts the area in the Scottish Government's second highest Covid warning level.

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The second hardest hit area was Mountcastle to the east, where the infection rate stood at 398 per 100,000 people - which was a slight week-on-week improvement.

At the other end of the scale, nine areas in the capital now fall into the country's lowest alert level, meaning they are almost completely Covid free.

Sighthill, Murrayfield, East Craigs, Gorgie, Wester Hailes, Broomhouse, Cramond, Pilton and Juniper Green all fall into this category.

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The latest statistics come as the head of the World Health Organisation warned the Covid-19 pandemic is "most certainly not over".

The UN health agency's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told officials gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, for the opening of the WHO's annual meeting that "we lower our guard at our peril".

He said: "Declining testing and sequencing means we are blinding ourselves to the evolution of the virus", and noted that almost one billion people in lower-income countries had still not been vaccinated.

In a weekly report on the global situation on Thursday, the WHO said the number of new Covid-19 cases appeared to have stabilised after weeks of decline since late March, while the overall number of weekly deaths had dropped.

While there had been progress, with 60 per cent of the world's population vaccinated.

"It's not over anywhere until it's over everywhere", Dr Tedros said.

"Reported cases are increasing in almost 70 countries in all regions, and this in a world in which testing rates have plummeted," he added.

Reported deaths were rising in Africa, the continent with the lowest vaccination coverage, he said, and only 57 countries - almost all of them wealthy - had vaccinated 70 per cent of their people.

While the world's vaccine supply had improved, there was "insufficient political commitment to roll out vaccines" in some countries, and gaps in "operational or financial capacity" in others, he said.

"In all, we see vaccine hesitancy driven by misinformation and disinformation," Dr Tedros said.

"The pandemic will not magically disappear, but we can end it."

Dr Tedros is expected to be appointed for a second five-year term this week at the World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of the WHO's member countries.

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