More than a quarter of Covid-19 patients in intensive care this year were there mainly because of the virus, according to a new report.

The Public Health Scotland (PHS) report said 296 patients have been admitted to intensive care units (ICU) since January 1 this year, when the Omicron variant became the predominant strain in Scottish ICUs.

It said since that date, just over one in four (26%) ICU admissions had Covid-19 as the “primary reason for admission to critical care on clinical case note review”.

In a further 14%, Covid-19 “may have contributed to the reason for admission, though was not the primary reason”, while in 60% of admissions, the positive PCR test was “coincidental to the reason for admission”.

The Herald:

PHS said it was not able to publish the coronavirus data it normally publishes on weekdays on Thursday due to a technical issue.

It tweeted: “Due to a technical issue, unfortunately Public Health Scotland is unable to report on the latest available figures on Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland today.

“We are working hard to resolve this and hope to return to normal reporting tomorrow.”

Wednesday’s data showed 45 coronavirus-linked deaths and 3,976 cases had been recorded in Scotland in the previous 24 hours.

There were 1,819 people in hospital on Wednesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 14 on the previous day.

There were 20 people in intensive care, up four.