Further positive Covid-19 cases in Forth Valley

For the fifth day in a row more people have been confirmed with coronavirus.

The number who have tested positive now stands at 1085.

This is two more in the last 24 hours.

Across Scotland there were only six positive cases recorded in this period.

There are currently six people in a hospital in Forth Valley who have tested positive with a further 17 inpatients suspected of having Covid-19.

With 15 new cases in the region in the past week, health officials sought to reassure the public that they constantly check for clusters or hotspots and none have been found.

Inside a Covid-19 ward

Yesterday a spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley said: “The numbers published can vary day-to-day depending on the timing of when the results are reported as there is a cut off time for the daily updates so not all positive tests published on the one day necessarily happened at the same time.

“We have already carried out contact tracing for the six cases reported on Friday and this has not identified a link between these cases.

"We have also reviewed the five cases reported today and again can find no link so these are not clusters or hotspots and are not the same as the recent cases in Dumfries & Galloway where there was a cluster of cases in the community with a common link.”

They added: “Part of the reason for the increase is because of the increase in testing to cover a wide group of people – care home staff are now being offered testing on a weekly basis, we are testing any patients over 70 who are admitted to hospital and we are also now testing any patients who are coming in for elective surgery as part their pre-op assessment – these numbers are starting to increase as we reschedule some of the operations which were postponed earlier in the year.

"Anyone in the community with symptoms can also access testing or request a test kit.”

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