Positive cases in Forth Valley rise again

One new positive case of Covid-19 was recorded in Forth Valley over the weekend.

Sunday’s daily figures from the Scottish Government show the increase of one, with the total number of people who have tested positive in the health board area since the outbreak began rising from 1085 to 1086.

It comes as Scotland recorded 19 new positive cases on Sunday.

In Forth Valley, the number had been unchanged since Thursday, however in the days prior to that the region had seen an increase of 15 cases over the course of a week.

According to Sunday’s government data less than five people confirmed as having Covid-19 are currently being treated in the region’s hospitals, while 19 are suspected to have the virus.

Less than five are currently in the intensive care unit at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.A total of 300,858 people in Scotland have been tested to date through NHS Scotland labs and the UK Government’s testing programme. Of these, 282,499 were confirmed negative and 18,359 were positive.

Last week health officials sought to reassure the public that they constantly check for clusters or hotspots and none have been found.

A spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley said no link had been found through contact tracing in recent cases, so they are not clusters or hotspots and are not the same as the recent cases in Dumfries and 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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