New data has revealed 63% of people in hospital with Covid in NHS Grampian are there because they are being treated for the virus.
Public Health Scotland released statistics revealing what proportion of patients are there solely due to having coronavirus rather than being admitted for another reason.
Of a sample taken between December 30 and January 4, 37% had been admitted to be treated for other conditions.
What else does the data tell us?
S gene dropout is a characteristic of the Omicron variant of Covid which helped scientists identify early cases.
Since November 23, cases showing S gene dropout have increased exponentially. As of January 5, they accounted for 91.1% of all reported cases.
Today’s data also shows there have been 91,544 cases of Covid recorded in Scotland in the most recent week, which is an increase of 51.5% from the previous week.
Though cases are increasing, the number of people taking lateral flows has decreased. There has been an 8.9% decrease in the number of asymptomatic tests carried out in the last week.
Why is this information important?
Today’s data should shine light on the spread of Covid in hospitals as well as giving an indication to the public of how dangerous the new variant really is.
Speaking in parliament earlier this week, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar explained why the information would be important to the public even if this new knowledge wouldn’t impact hospital capacity.
He said: “Nobody is questioning whether having a patient with Covid impacts on hospital capacity.
“But what it does impact on is how people think about how dangerous this variant is to them, their life and loved ones.”
This story was amended to remove references to 37% of patients having caught Covid while in hospital – rather than already having the virus when they were admitted for something else. This error was the result of a misinterpretation of the data on our part. We apologise for any confusion.