This video shows how coronavirus spread across Edinburgh throughout 2020

This new interactive graphic reveals how coronavirus infection hotspots changed in Edinburgh throughout 2020 – and which neighbourhoods have been hit hardest at different points in the pandemic.

Public Health Scotland recently released neighbourhood-level data for the first time following pressure from the JPIMedia Data Unit for greater transparency.

It had previously argued the data should not be released as it could breach patient confidentiality. 

Public Health England has been providing neighbourhood-level data throughout the pandemic.

Edinburgh is divided into 111 ‘intermediate data zones’ – small geographical units which contain between 2,500 and 6,000 households, often used in official statistics.

The new weekly PHS figures have been backdated to early in the pandemic, and show how coronavirus spread across these neighbourhoods between the weeks ending March 9th and December 28th.

The JPIMedia Data Unit has crunched the figures to create an animated map of the year.

Areas are shaded according to how many coronavirus cases per 100,000 people were recorded, by test date. The darker the colour, the higher the rate.

You can explore the map in more detail at the bottom of the page, or watch it in the video above.

How has the virus spread?

The time series shows hotspots of the virus developing across the city in April and May.

Infections subsided between June and August – although cases between zero and two have been suppressed to protect individual identities – before picking up in September through to the end of the year.

Where has had the highest infection rate?

The Newington and Dalkeith Road area saw the single highest coronavirus rate in the city in 2020, with 3,636 cases per 100,000 people recorded in the seven days to October 5th.

In the last week of the year, the highest rate was in Liberton West and Braid Hills, with a rate of 631 cases per 100,000.

That was followed by East Craigs South, with 623 per 100,000.