COVID-19 positive test reporting figures: FOI release

Information requested

‘The First Minister has just stated that there were on average 7000 cases per day over the last week. The figures on the UK Coronavirus reporting web site for Scotland are significantly lower. Can you explain the difference for me?’

Response

The Scottish Government publishes Coronavirus (COVID-19): daily data for Scotland, which provides the latest data on COVID-19 in Scotland. The figures provided include those who have tested positive for COVID-19 on either a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) or a Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test.

You can find more detailed information on the ‘new cases’ definition on the Public Health Scotland (PHS) website here: COVID-19 Daily Dashboard.

This differs to the figures reported by the UK Government as at the date you emailed, which were the daily number of cases made up of those who tested positive for COVID-19 by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests only. You can find further information on the UK Government website here. Since 10 February the figures by reporting date on the UK COVID-19 dashboard have included PCR and LFD positive tests.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.