Scotland has recorded its highest number of daily positive coronavirus tests for almost a month, with 21 confirmed results in 24 hours as the deputy first minister warned of the ongoing threat of coronavirus.
Figures released by the Scottish government on Saturday were the highest number since 21 June, when there were 26 positive test results.
The deputy first minister of Scotland, John Sweeney, said in a tweet that he was thankful for another day of no deaths but that “21 positive cases” was a reminder “of the danger still out there”.
The data also shows there were no deaths involving someone who had been confirmed as having Covid-19, meaning the death toll under this measurement remains unchanged from Thursday, at 2,491. A total of 18,422 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland.
There are 305 people in hospital in Scotland with confirmed Covid-19, a decrease of 11 from Friday. Of these patients, three are in intensive care, which is the same as the previous day. However, five other people are in intensive care with suspected coronavirus.
It comes as daily updates on the coronavirus death toll in England have been paused amid growing concern that the numbers could have been exaggerated.
A message on the government’s website on Saturday said: “Currently the daily deaths measure counts all people who have tested positive for coronavirus and since died, with no cut-off between time of testing and date of death.
“There have been claims that the lack of cut-off may distort the current daily deaths number. We are therefore pausing the publication of the daily figure while this is resolved.”
As of 9am on 18 July, a further 827 people have tested positive for the virus in the UK, raising the overall total to 294,066. Additionally, 13 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing to the total number of confirmed deaths in hospitals to 29,173, officials said.
Those who lost their lives were aged between 49 and 96 and all had known underlying conditions.
On Friday the health secretary, Matt Hancock, ordered a review after the data was called into question in a paper by Yoon K Loke and Carl Heneghan, of the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine at Oxford University, entitled Why No One can Ever Recover from Covid-19 in England – a Statistical Anomaly.
