UNVACCINATED Scots made up more than half of Covid hospital admissions and nearly two thirds of confirmed cases of the virus over the past four weeks. 

The latest data from Public Health Scotland also reveals that 41 Covid deaths have been reported in patients who were fully vaccinated against the disease and more than 14 days on from their second vaccine dose at the time that they tested positive for the virus. 

However, this is equivalent to just one in 100,000 - or 0.001 per cent - of fully vaccinated people succumbing to the infection.

PHS said that all 41 patients affected also had “several co-morbidities which contributed to their deaths”.

The Herald:

Between the beginning of the vaccine rollout up to July 7, a total of 2.8 million people in Scotland were fully vaccinated against Covid, with those over 55 roughly three times more likely than under-40s to have had both vaccine doses at this stage in the rollout.

This is reflected by a shift in the share of infections and hospital admissions now occurring in the younger, unvaccinated population.

The PHS report notes that, since May 10, “a higher proportion of Covid-19 positive PCR cases have been in unvaccinated individuals under the age of 40".

The Herald:

In the most recent four week period, from June 12 to July 9, 65% of Covid cases detected through PCR testing (43,494 out of 67,219) were in unvaccinated individuals.

This compared to 18% in people who had had both vaccine doses.

The Herald:

Since May 10, there has also been "a larger and increasing proportion of Covid-19 related acute hospital admissions in unvaccinated populations, in comparison to populations with one or two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine", according to the PHS report.

Between June 12 and July 9, 52% of Covid-related acute hospital admissions (670 out of 1,298) were in unvaccinated individuals, of which 70.6% were in the under 40s age group.

As the overall prevalence of the virus in the community increased, the number of unvaccinated patients admitted to hospital per week more than doubled from 117 in the week ending June 18 to 260 in the week ending July 9.

The Herald:

However, there was also a sharp increase in admissions among the fully vaccinated who are statistically more likely to be older or to have underlying health conditions, meaning they are more vulnerable to serious illness in the event of contracting the coronavirus.

In the week ending June 18, there were 59 Covid hospital admissions among patients who were fully vaccinated, but by the week ending July 9 this had climbed to 216.

This is partly reflected in the increasing number of Covid deaths being recorded by the National Records of Scotland, which reached 30 last week compared to six in the week beginning May 10.