Renfrewshire becomes covid hotspot as cases in region soar

Renfrewshire has seen a surge in covid cases taking the area into Scotland's top five virus hotspots.It comes as NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde chiefs urged residents to steer clear of their stretched A&E departments this week, blaming Covid cases in part for ramping up capacity.We told last week how the BA.2 subvariant, now responsible for most of Scotland's covid cases appeared to have fuelled a fresh spike in cases.But cases over the week to March 20 rose again, with the seven day positivity case rate now standing at 3,265 - up from 3,083 the previous week.It means the seven day positivity rate per 100,000 now stands at 1,820.1 - from last week's 1,718.6.Don't miss the latest headlines from around Renfrewshire.

Sign up to our newsletters here.The figure represents a steep rise in cases from the seven-day positive case figure on March 6, which stood at 2,192- a rate of 1, 221.9 per 100,000.NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said on Wednesday that the Royal Alexandra Hospital was treating 113 Covid patients who are less than 28 days from diagnosis.Neighbouring authorities have much lower case rates - including Inverclyde where 1,392 positive cases have been recorded over the same seven day period.The City of Edinburgh is hard hit,with a seven day test positivity caseload of 7,194.Despite the surge in cases, deaths in Renfrewshire have remained stable.Data from the National Records of Scotland shows that one death took place in the area in the week beginning March 14, where the virus was mentioned on the death certificate.

The number of covid deaths in Renfrewshire has remained relatively stable for weeks, with the exception of the week beginning February 28, when six deaths were recorded.