Covid-19: No death on fourth day in a row in Scotland

COURTESY BY: https://www.hindustantimes.com/

Pursuing a strategy to ‘eliminate’ coronavirus, Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon on Monday reported in Edinburgh that there was no new death for the fourth day in a row, while UK-wide figures released in London showed another low day-rise of 25 deaths.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to announce plans for a multi-billion-pound economic stimulus on Tuesday to recover from what he called a ‘disaster’ cased by the pandemic. Moves to ease lockdown and re-open economy from July 4 include abolishing quarantine curbs for some air passengers.

Sturgeon said: “I can report today, that an additional 5 positive cases were confirmed yesterday – which takes the total now in Scotland to 18,241 confirmed cases…A total of 10 people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected Covid”.

“And in the past 24 hours, I’m pleased to report that no deaths were registered of a patient confirmed through a test as having Covid-19 – the total number of deaths in Scotland, under that measurement, therefore remains at 2,482”.

“This is the fourth day in a row when no deaths of patients confirmed through a test have been recorded in Scotland”, she added.

According to Devi Sridhar, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh and an adviser to the Sturgeon government, Scotland is on course to be virus-free by the end July if the rate of decrease of new cases is maintained.

“But we are going to see little bumps, so it’s a question of how small can you keep those bumps. July is a crucial month for people to follow the rules and guidance, and be sensible because the virus is still around and can still increase quite fast within days and weeks,” she told BBC.

According to the Department of Health, the UK-wide figures were: 43,575 deaths (25 in last 24 hours) and 311,965 cases (day rise of 815 cases). Re-opening of the economy prompted by the dwindling figures is expected to happen from July 4 along with local lockdowns based on new spreads.

One such local lockdown is being considered in the east Midlands town of Leicester, which has a large population of Indian origin. Current restrictions are to continue there for two more weeks, unlike the rest of England that will largely re-open later this week.