Striking image of death notices in a Scottish newsagent window shows stark reality of rising coronavirus death toll

This stark image of a newsagent’s window filled up with this week’s death notices shows the heartbreaking reality of the current coronavirus situation in a rural Scottish town.

The picture illustrates the stark reality of Covid-19, the exhausting pain that the virus continues to inflict as the death toll rises in Stranraer.

A window that was once filled with a handful of death notices, more often than not due to natural causes, is now a jigsaw that represents the loved ones who haven’t survived the virus.

An employee at Dunns Newsagents, who wished not to be named, told The Scotsman: "I've worked in the shop for 20 years and I've never experienced this number of deaths, ever.

“We've got customers that have shopped in here for 30 plus years and they are all saying the same, it’s so sad.

"It's really impacting the community around here, we're quite a close-knit wee community so this is really, really hard.”

Local reporter Jennifer Jones, said: "I've been driving past it every day on the way to the office, watching it build up. The one in the flower shop nearby is the same, but more haphazard.

"This is the worst thing to happen in Stranraer since the Princess Victoria sinking 60 years ago"

The window of a Stranraer newsagent filled with death notices from just one week.

The Princess Victoria ferry set sail from Stranraer on January, 31, 1953.

Stormy conditions caused the ship to sink just off the County Down coast, killing all 133 people on board.

Dumfries and Galloway has seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases, having spent most of the latter part of 2020 with relatively low cases numbers in comparison to the rest of the country.

A care home in Stranraer saw a coronavirus outbreak which has left a total of ten people dead so far.

The picture of a newsagent window taken by Jennifer Jones @jennifermjones illustrates the stark reality of Covid-19, the exhausting pain that the virus continues to inflict as the death toll rises in Stranraer.

As of January 20, 2021, a total of 90 positive cases, 45 residents and 45 staff, had been recorded.

In the last seven days, Dumfries and Galloway has seen 228.4 cases per 100,000 population, it is the tenth worst hit area in Scotland.

More specifically, where this photo was taken, Stranraer has seen a big jump with 64 cases in the last week.

In the week beginning December, 12, 2020, Stranraer didn’t report any cases.

In that same week, the case rate per 100,000 people was sitting at just 36.9.

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