West Lothian remains one of the most infectious places in Scotland for Covid-19.
The county’s seven day positivity rate of 121 per 100,000 is the fourth highest in Scotland, with only Falkirk, Renfrewshire and Stirling being more infectious.
Infections have been falling in recent weeks in the county, but just not as fast as they are dropping in other parts of the country.
The latest Public Health Scotland data show that as of March 3 there were 28 new cases in West Lothian, 222 over the seven days between February 23 and March 1 and 6761 since the first person tested positive in the county on March 9 2020.
The 121 per 100,000 who have tested positive for the contagion in West Lothian over the past week means the county remains above the national average, now 72.
This means West Lothian is under the required threshold of 150 cases per 100,000 to remain in Level Three when the Scottish Government’s level system restarts on April 26.
To go down to Level Two, West Lothian would have to see cases drop to as low as 50 per 100,000 people.
Across Lothian there were 71 new cases, 736 in the seven day period and 28,096 since records began.
In Scotland there were 500 new cases, 3944 over the week and a new total of 204,055.
On the PHS Heatmap, eleven of the 37 neighbourhoods in West Lothian now sit in the lowest zone, with the virus suppressed after recording two or fewer cases in the week previous.
No neighbourhoods sit in the highest zone with more than 400 cases per 100,000 but Seafield remains the most infectious place in the county with seven cases among their 2215 residents.
At her daily briefing yesterday the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said “things are firmly heading in the right direction” with infections falling and the vaccination programme performing well.
Ms Sturgeon said more details about the timetable out of lockdown will be available from next week but she will continue to “proceed with caution” when deciding Scotland’s exit plan.
She went onto say that protecting the country from the enw variants of Covid-19 will be one of the most “most serious” challenges she faces in the coming weeks.
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