Covid-related deaths during October

The National Registers of Scotland has just released the latest number of deaths involving Covid-19 along with the monthly analysis for October 2022                                            

As at 13 November 2022, 16,052 deaths have been registered in Scotland where the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate, according to statistics published today by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

In the latest week, 47 deaths were registered that mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, one more than in the previous week.

There were eight deaths in Fife, seven deaths  in Aberdeen City, and five deaths in South Lanarkshire. In total, 19 council areas (out of 32) had at least one death involving Covid-19 last week.

43 were in hospitals, three were in care homes, and one was at home or in a non-institutional setting.  21 deaths were female and 26 were male. 36 were aged 75 or older, nine were aged 65 to 74, and two were under 65.

Our monthly analysis shows that the age-standardised rate of Covid-related deaths was slightly higher in October 2022 (41 per 100,000) compared to September 2022 (37 per 100,000). Throughout the pandemic, the highest rate of COVID-related deaths was 585 per 100,000 people in April 2020.

Of the 15,995 deaths involving COVID-19 between March 2020 and October 2022, 93% (14,942) had at least one pre-existing condition, with the most common being dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. 

Pete Whitehouse, Director of Statistical Services, said:

“The latest figures show that last week there were 47 deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. This is one more than in the previous week.

“People living in the most deprived areas were 2.4 times as likely to die with Covid-19 as those in the least deprived areas. The size of this gap slowly widened over the period of the pandemic but has narrowed since January 2022, when the gap was 2.5.

“The number of deaths from all causes registered in Scotland in this week was 1,219, which is 52, or 4%, more than the five year average.”

There have been nine deaths in Scotland in which the underlying cause of death was due to the adverse effects of vaccination against Covid-19, and four further deaths where an adverse effect was mentioned on the death certificate. This is no change from the figure reported last month.

By 31 October 2022, statistics from Public Health Scotland state that 4.4 million people had been given at least one vaccine dose.