Nicola Sturgeon: No new deaths from Covid-19 for five days in Scotland

The First Minister gave the update at her daily coronavirus briefing.

There have been no new deaths from Covid-19 for five days in Scotland.

There have been no new deaths from Covid-19 for the last five days, the First Minister has announced.

Nicola Sturgeon was speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh and made the announcement during her familiar statistical update.

It means the total number of deaths from Covid-19 under the measurement used by the Scottish Government has stayed static at 2,490 for almost a week.

She said: “I am pleased to say that during the last 24 hours, no deaths were registered of a patient confirmed through a test as having Covid.

“The total number of deaths under that measurement therefore remains at 2,490."

However, the number of deaths could be artificially low due less reporting on the weekend, and the First Minister added that some registration offices have returned to five day work weeks after spending the majority of the pandemic operating seven days a week.

Ms Sturgeon added: "Now this is the fifth in a row on which no deaths have been reported but it is worth providing just a little bit of context for the past two days.

"At the outset of the Covid outbreak, registration offices took special steps to allow for seven day operations and I am very grateful to them and their staff for doing so, but some offices are now going back to being open only in weekdays, although for emergency situations they continue to provide weekend arrangements.

"Yesterday’s figure of zero deaths is therefore welcome but it has to be seen in that context.”

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