MORE THAN 10,000 people in Scotland have died after testing positive for Covid since the pandemic began, official figures have revealed.

The grim milestone was announced by the Scottish Government on Friday after the daily coronavirus figures revealed 10,038 people in Scotland have died after a positive test.

As of January 9, 29% of Covid-19 deaths have been related to deaths in care homes, 64% were in hospitals and 7% were at home or in non-institutional settings, according to figures from National Records of Scotland (NRS).

The National:

March 1, 2020 saw the first positive coronavirus patient confirmed in Scotland while March 13 witnessed the first death of a patient from the virus.

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Since then, the virus has mutated several times as Scotland went on to battle the increasingly transmissible Delta variant, followed by the even more spreadable Omicron variant which is currently dominating in the country.

Although cases numbers have exploded in recent weeks in Scotland, with the record for daily virus infections having being broken several times over the Christmas period, Covid deaths have not experienced the same boom.

This has largely been thanks to the vaccine roll-out and widespread public health measures including face masks, social distancing, and wider lockdown restrictions.

As well as this, the Covid vaccines have provided millions of Scots with increased protection against severe illness and death.

More than 1,000,000 people, nearly 20% of Scots, have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started.

Commenting, Cabinet Secretary for Health Humza Yousaf said: “As we acknowledge the ten thousandth Covid-19 death reported in Scotland under the daily measure it is important to remember that this is not just a statistic.

"Every single one represents a person lost, families devastated and communities mourning. I want to send my heartfelt condolences to all of those affected by the loss of a loved one. 

“While we continue to navigate the difficult road ahead, I also want to thank everyone for their continued efforts to help prevent the spread of the virus.

“Getting vaccinated remains the single most important thing we can do to protect ourselves and others from the effects of the coronavirus, so once again I’d urge anyone who is eligible and has not yet had a vaccination or a booster, to get this as soon as possible, it is not too late.”

Although the official figure of Covid deaths following a positive test has only just passed 10,000, other measurements passed the figure a while ago.

Some 12,543 deaths have been registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate up to 9 January, according to the NRS.

And 12,510 excess deaths have also been recorded from March 16, 2020.

Although high case numbers haven’t seen parallel figures in terms of deaths, it has caused other disruptions for Scotland and its economy, such as the “pingdemic”.

Industries from hospitality, delivery workers, rail staff and even NHS workers have suffered from Covid-related absences.

NHS Scotland on Friday said absences related to the virus are at their highest levels since the early weeks of the pandemic.

Official figures revealed that an average of more than 7000 NHS staff were off work every day in the week to January 11.

Combined with rising numbers of hospital patients, this has put increased strain on Scotland’s National Health Service.

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And as cases reach record highs in Scotland, the country's national clinical director has warned that the next coronavirus variant could be even worse than the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The National:

Speaking on STV’s Scotland Tonight on Thursday, Jason Leitch said: “We’ve had four variants, and they’ve got progressively worse, and then one has got slightly better. But Omicron didn’t come from Delta and Delta didn’t come from Alpha. That’s not how it works. They all come from the beginning.

“So you could get a more mild one, and that would help us and you would end up having fewer people in hospital, but you could get a more severe one. So we have to be ready for all of those eventualities.

“This is not the last variant, there will be another one. So governments all over the world, including ours, have to be ready and businesses have to be ready.”