Five deaths related to coronavirus in Shetland, NRS says

Coronavirus Disease 2019 Graphic. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) has announced that there have been five deaths in Shetland related to coronavirus, up to Sunday 12th April.

The weekly deaths update, which takes into account the week from Monday 6th April to Sunday 12th April, showed that of 962 Covid-19 associated deaths that have occurred in Scotland so far, five of those were in Shetland.

For the first time the figures are broken down nationally to show whether the deaths have occurred in a home, hospital or a care home.

According to the NRS, 25 per cent of those 962 Covid-19 related deaths have taken place in a care home setting.

62 per cent of the deaths were in hospitals, while the other 13 per cent were at home.

Today’s weekly death update from the NRS comes in the same week that the Care Inspectorate confirmed they had been made aware of “the tragic deaths of residents” at the Wastview Care Centre in Walls.

Last Wednesday, the NRS announced there had been one death in Shetland in the week between Monday 30th March and Sunday 5th April that could be “associated” with Covid-19.

The NRS is reporting coronavirus deaths differently to the Scottish government.

Scottish government daily death updates count only those that have tested positive for Covid-19 and subsequently died within 28 days of that positive test, whereas the NRS are counting every death in which coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate.

That includes cases where the doctor has indicated there were “suspected or probable” signs of the virus in the cause of death.