ANOTHER 64 people have died in Scotland after contracting Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
A further 1121 coronavirus cases were also registered in the past 24 hours, with a positivity rate of 5.2%.
The deaths, recorded among people who tested positive in the previous 28 days, bring the total under that measurement to 6828.
However, new weekly figures show a total of 9053 people have died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus.
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The National Records of Scotland (NRS) stats show 323 deaths relating to Covid-19 were registered between February 8 and 14, down 54 on the previous week.
Speaking to MSPs ahead of First Minister’s Questions, also revealed 1317 people are currently in hospital with recently confirmed coronavirus, 66 fewer than 24 hours previously.
Of those, 99 are in intensive care, a decrease of one.
The NRS report found that more than 80% of deaths over the most recent week occurred in hospital (266), while 42 occurred in care homes and 15 at home or in non-institutional settings.
In the last three weeks, deaths in all locations have started to fall.
The fastest decrease has been in care homes, with a 62% reduction over that period.
Care home deaths have now fallen to a level last seen around the end of October.
#NRSStats show as at 14th February, 9,053 deaths have been registered in #Scotland where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, 323 deaths were registered from 8-14 Feb, a decrease of 54 deaths from the previous week. https://t.co/Ku0qgjLAn2 pic.twitter.com/Ba4NSxSg4o
— NatRecordsScot (@NatRecordsScot) February 17, 2021
Sturgeon said: "Now, every death from Covid is deeply regrettable, and for that reason it never feels quite right to talk about encouraging news in the context of the NRS report.
"However, there are aspects of today's report that really do bear some emphasis because they give us, I think, the first hard evidence of the positive impact of vaccination.
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"Deaths, overall, have fallen now for three consecutive weeks. Deaths that occurred in hospitals have fallen over that three-week period by 11%. And deaths occurring in people's own homes or in other non-institutional settings have fallen by 29%.
"However, deaths in care homes, which were the early focus of the vaccination programme, have fallen by 62%.
"In fact, with the exception of one week at the end of August, when there were only 2 Covid deaths registered overall, care homes accounted for a smaller proportion of overall Covid deaths last week than at any time since March of last year.
"I think that is positive news given the toll that the virus has taken on our care homes."
As of 8.30am this morning, 1,320,074 people had received the first dose, which is an increase of 32,070 in 24 hours.
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