Aberdeen’s Covid positivity rate is the lowest in Scotland, according to the latest seven-day figures.
The data released by Public Health Scotland show just 55 cases in the Granite City for a population of 228,670.
The only areas of the country with a lower rate are the island communities of Orkney and Shetland – both of which saw no new cases recorded between February 14 and 20.
In Aberdeenshire, 92 new cases were recorded last week.
New figures have revealed fewer than 200 new Covid cases were detected in the north-east in the last seven days.
Compared to the previous seven-day period, the number of cases confirmed in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire is down more than 26%.
How is the positivity rate calculated?
Case numbers can be put into context by looking at them as a rate per 100,000 population.
This rate is then categorised into one of five bands by Public Health Scotland (PHS). If the number of cases in the seven-day period is two or less, it is marked as suppressed.
Each area of the country has been divided into regions of roughly similar populations, and are the same used in a wide range of national datasets released by the Scottish Government.
In the past day, there have been 56 new deaths registered, including one in Aberdeen and one in Aberdeenshire, taking the country’s toll to 7,006.
A total of 198,839 people have now tested positive in Scotland, with 777 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.
What’s the picture like Scotland wide?
The Scotland-wide seven-day positive rate per 100,000 population is 100.9, with 5,777 people testing positive during this period – up around 200 on the previous week.
Of all the tests carried out, 5.1% returned a positive result.
The area of the country with the highest positivity rate is Falkirk, with a rate of 224.4 per 100,000
Aberdeen
Aberdeen has an average rate per 100,000 population of 24.1 down from 35.9 during the previous seven-day period.
Fifty-five positive cases of Covid-19 were identified during this period, a decrease of 33.4% (28) on the previous period.
Of all the tests carried out in the region, 1.4% were positive.
A map showing the breakdown of cases by neighbourhood reveals no neighbourhoods in Aberdeen are in the highest category, however, Summerhill with 11 new cases, has a rate of almost 300 cases per 100,000.
Elsewhere in the city, only six other areas have their cases displayed, meaning 86% of Aberdeen’s neighbourhoods only recorded between zero and two cases last week.
Public Health Scotland doesn’t display figures below this level to prevent the identification of individuals.
Aberdeen city council co-leader Douglas Lumsden welcomed the lowering numbers of Covid-19 cases.
He said: “I think it is great that we have seen the infections rates and positivity rate coming down right across the city.
“It makes it even more confusing across to people that we are still in lockdown. Our cases are lower now than they were in many parts of the summer last year.
“It seems strange we are still in lockdown.”
Kingswells, Sheddocksley and Summerhill councillor David Cameron said: “Having been in public health for over 40 years it sometimes unwise to draw conclusions from one metric such as taken from the report.
“Whilst it is an important metric, rate of cases per hundred thousand of the population, as you reduce the population size by moving to smaller data sets, there is the risk of distorting the message.
“That said, it is unfortunate that we are still recording cases of Covid-19, and my sympathy is with everyone who has contracted the virus and I wish them all a speedy and complete recovery.”
Aberdeenshire
In Aberdeenshire, there have been 92 cases in the last seven-day period, with a positive rate of 35.2 per 100,000 – below that of the Scottish average.
The test positivity rate for the region, at 2.1% is also below that of the national average.
No areas are within the highest band assigned by Public Health Scotland, however, Ellon West and Mearns and Laurencekirk both have rates in excess of 200 cases per 100,000.
According to the latest figures 16 cases were detected in Ellon West and 13 identified in Mearns and Laurencekirk.
The vast majority of the region, however, has had its data suppressed. Forty-nine of Aberdeenshire’s 59 regions have between zero and two cases.
Ellon and district councillor Isobel Davidson said the number of cases in the historic town highlight the need for caution.
She said: “Ellon has been pretty well protected throughout this pandemic.
“Although it is a bit of concern with these cases. In a town of 10,000 people 16 is not a huge number of cases.
“But there is no doubt we still need to be very careful and stick with the rules for a little while longer.”
Councillor Anouk Kloppert, who also represents Ellon and district, said: “I am sorry to hear there been 16 new cases in Ellon while the latest figures showing that in the vast majority of Aberdeenshire data are looking suppressed.
“I understand that cases over Aberdeenshire are still significantly higher than in September and cases are seen across all of Grampian. Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is still close to full occupancy, and there is sustained pressure on care homes.
“However, lockdown is regarded as working and self-reported compliance is high. With this in mind, it is difficult to comment on the 16 new cases in Ellon without further detail to these data. I do really hope that those new cases come through their illness safe and well, and I wish each individual a speedy recovery.”
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