Covid in Scotland: Glasgow case rate rises as levels decision due - BBC News
The city overtakes Moray as having the highest rate of infection as Scotland prepares to move to level two on Monday.
A growing number of cases in Glasgow has given cause for concern

The number of Covid cases in Glasgow has risen further as the first minister prepares to announce if restrictions will ease in the city and in Moray.

The seven-day rate per 100,000 population in Glasgow is 80.4, while in Moray it has fallen to 68.9.

Three other council areas are also narrowly above 50 cases per 100,000, a key benchmark for deciding the appropriate tier of restrictions.

The Scottish government is due to announce its decision on Friday.

On Tuesday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Moray was likely to remain under level three Covid restrictions when the rest of mainland Scotland moves down to level two next week.

However, since then a growing number of cases in Glasgow has given cause for concern.

Meetings took place on Thursday with local public health teams, and national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch said the outbreak in the south of Glasgow was "relatively contained".

Meanwhile, NHS Grampian said Moray's outbreak was showing "signs of improvement".

Public Health Scotland publishes data from three days ago, because more recent figures are often revised upwards later. On 11 May the rates per 100,000 population were:

The Glasgow cases are concentrated mainly in the south of the city with one district, Pollokshields West, seeing 47 positive cases over the previous seven days, giving a local case rate of 1,008 per 100,000 population.

Most of mainland Scotland is scheduled to move to level two Covid restrictions on Monday, which will allow people to hug and visit other households indoors. Most islands will move to level one.

Prof Leitch said earlier that people should be concerned about the increasing numbers in Scotland's largest city.

But he added: "It is relatively contained, not yet exponential growth like we have seen with this virus before."

The reasons behind the increase in cases in Glasgow are not yet known, although it is suspected the so-called Indian variant has played a role.

NHS Greater Glasgow Clyde and Glasgow City Council is writing to all households in the G41 and G42 areas, asking people to get tested regardless of whether they have symptoms.

Dr Linda de Caestecker, director of public health at the health board, said the south of the city appeared to be affected and there had been a "cluster of outbreaks" linked to household transmission.

A leading epidemiologist told BBC Scotland the latest spikes in Glasgow and Moray showed "a loss of control of the pandemic".

Dr Deepti Gurdasani, from Queen Mary University London, warned against restrictions being eased and said "the government should be considering the opposite".

She told the Good Morning Scotland programme: "In Scotland as a whole, we have actually seen the number of new cases double in the last week.

"While the cases are so low, it's hard to see exponential rises. This is what early exponential rises look like and we're seeing loss of control of the pandemic.

"The situation is likely much wider and other places will follow unless action is taken to prevent and pre-empt this now."

Ms Sturgeon and other leading politicians have also issued words of caution this week around celebrations of Eid - one of the biggest holidays in the Muslim calendar.

In the north of Scotland, outbreaks have also been seen in areas such as Lossiemouth and Aberlour.

Additional mobile testing units are to be deployed in communities.

The reasons behind the increase in cases in Glasgow are not yet known

Deputy director of public health for NHS Grampian, Chris Littlejohn, said the number of people coming forward for testing had increased and that it was possible the outbreak in Elgin may be starting to plateau.

He added: "Despite a fourfold increase in the numbers being tested, the positivity rate has stayed broadly the same, which is encouraging and means the outbreak isn't currently any worse than we already feared."

Elgin - which has seen dozens of cases associated with Elgin Academy - and Keith are said to have been been particular hotspots.

The vaccination of younger adults in Moray was earlier accelerated because of the coronavirus surge in the area.