Deaths involving COVID-19 Week 27: 5 - 11 July 2021

As at 30 June, 10,220 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. 

In the week 05 – 11 July 2021, 30 deaths were registered that mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, an increase of eight deaths from the previous week. 

There were five deaths in the City of Edinburgh and four deaths in both Glasgow City and South Lanarkshire. Fourteen other council areas also recorded deaths involving COVID-19 last week. 

Over the course of the pandemic, Glasgow City, Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire have had the highest COVID-related death rates, with people in large urban areas being 3.7 times as likely to die with COVID as those in remote rural areas, after adjusting for age.

Pete Whitehouse, Director of Statistical Services, said:

“Five of the COVID-related deaths last week were aged under 65, four were aged 65-74 and there were twenty one deaths amongst people aged 75 or over. Nine were female and twenty one were male. 

After adjusting for age,  COVID-related death rates for males are significantly higher than for females. In the period from March 2020 to June 2021, COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificates of 176 males per 100,000 population compared to 121 females per 100,000.

There have been 4 deaths where the underlying cause was adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines. There have been no vaccine-related deaths in the latest month. By 30 June 2021 statistics from Public Health Scotland state that 3.82 million people had been given at least one vaccine dose.”

In the last week the total number of deaths from all causes was 6% higher than the average for week 27 in the period 2015-2019. At the height of the pandemic in April 2020, there were around 80% more deaths than average.

93% of COVID-related deaths between March 2020 and June 2021 had at least one pre-existing medical condition, with the most common being dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. 

The publication Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland is available on the NRS website.