As at 8 November, a total of 4,856 deaths have been registered in Scotland where the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate, according to statistics published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) today.

Between 2 – 8 November, 206 deaths were registered that mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, an increase of 38 from the previous week.

143 deaths were in hospitals; 53 in care homes and 9 were at home or in non-institutional settings.

To place these statistics in context, the total number of all-cause deaths registered in the week 2 – 8 November was 1,238, 12% more than the average over the previous five years.

Updated analysis, covering the period from March-October, on mortality by pre-existing conditions, urban and rural areas, place of death and deprivation has also been published today and show:

Of those who died with COVID-19 between March and October, 92% had at least one pre-existing condition. 

The most common main pre-existing condition was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, accounting for 30% of all deaths involving COVID-19.

After adjusting for age, people living in large urban areas were over 4 times as likely to die with COVID-19 as those in remote rural locations.

West Dunbartonshire had the highest age-standardised death rate of all council areas, followed by Glasgow City, Midlothian and Inverclyde.

This month’s report also includes an update to the ethnicity analysis first published in July, which covers the same time period (March to mid-June) but includes additional ethnicity data gathered by registrars.

It concludes that deaths amongst people of South Asian ethnicity were more likely to involve COVID-19 than deaths of people with a White Scottish ethnicity.

The analysis also concluded that for the other ethnic groups, where an analysis could be performed, there was no evidence that the likelihood of a COVID-19 related death was different to people of a White Scottish ethnicity.

Pete Whitehouse, Director of Statistical Services, said:

“Every death from this virus represents loss and grief for families across the country.

“The latest analysis continues to show that people living in the most deprived areas were over two times as likely to die with COVID-19 as those living in the least deprived areas.

“This month’s analysis includes updated analysis by ethnicity, the results of which are broadly in line with the initial analysis published in July.”