Midlothian Covid case numbers continue to fall as First Minister announces more lifting of restrictions

The number of Covid cases continues to fall across Midlothian. Stock picture by Michael Gillen.

The number of positive coronavirus cases in Midlothian continues to fall, as the country gets set to move out of Level 0 restrictions on Monday.

The latest seven day rolling figures show that there were 158 Covid cases recorded in Midlothian from July 25-31, giving a rate per 100,000 of 169.6. While the test positivity rate for that period was 6.1 per cent.

The case numbers are down from 210 for July 18-24 and 416 for July 11-17.

The number of coronavirus cases in Midlothian increased by 62 over the weekend, official figures show. A total of 6,539 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Midlothian when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on Monday, up from 6,477 on Friday.

There were no new coronavirus deaths recorded over the weekend in Midlothian.

The dashboard shows 161 people had died in the area by August 2 (Monday) – which was unchanged from Friday.

It means there has been one death in the past week, which is a decrease on two the previous week. They were among 7,943 deaths recorded across Scotland.

The figures include anyone who died within 28 days of a positive test result for Covid-19, and whose usual residence was in Midlothian.

The figures also show that almost three-quarters of people in Midlothian have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 54,145 people had received both jabs by August 1 (Sunday) – 74 per cent of those aged 18 and over, based on mid-2020 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

Across Scotland, 72 per cent of people aged 18 and above had received a second dose of the jab.

These latest figures come as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that from Monday several significant remaining restrictions in Scotland will be removed, including physical distancing requirements and limits on social gatherings. Though crowds are still limited to 2,000 indoors and 5,000 outdoors (larger attendances will require permission).

However, unlike England, which removed legal restrictions last month, masks are still required to be worn by law in Scotland, and people here are encouraged to work from home where possible.