The weekly total of Covid deaths in Ayrshire is at its lowest for nine weeks.

The latest figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show that there were 14 deaths from Covid in Ayrshire between November 8-14.

That's a decrease from 20 in the week before that, and is the lowest weekly total since the week beginning September 13, when 14 deaths were also recorded.

Of those deaths, five were to people from East Ayrshire, down from 14 the previous week.

Five were from North Ayrshire, an increase of two on the week before.

And four were from South Ayrshire, the same weekly total as the previous one.

As of November 14, 11,933 deaths have been registered in Scotland where the novel coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate.

Between November 8-14, 115 deaths were registered that mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, 25 fewer than the previous week.

Pete Whitehouse, NRS Director of Statistical Services, said: “The number of registered Covid-19 deaths has fallen to the lowest number since early September.

"The next couple of weeks will provide valuable evidence on whether the latest fall is the start of a sustained decline or a continuation of the recent fluctuations.  

“Our analysis shows that there continues to be an increased risk of dying with Covid-19 amongst people living in Scotland’s most deprived areas and that deaths of people with a Pakistani, Chinese, Indian or Other Asian ethnicity are more likely to involve Covid-19 than those of people with a White Scottish ethnicity.”

Of deaths involving Covid-19 in the latest week:

  • 57 were female, 58 were male.
  • 60 were aged 75 or older, 32 were aged 65 to 74 and 23 were under 65.
  • There were 15 deaths in Fife, 14 in Glasgow City and 8 in South Lanarkshire. In total 25 council areas (out of 32) had at least one death involving COVID-19 last week.
  • 102 were in hospitals, 4 were in care homes and 9 were at home or a non-institutional setting.

There were 1,327 deaths from all causes last week, 222 (20 per cent) more than the five year average.

NRS analysis of deaths occurring between March 2020 and October 2021 shows that after adjusting for age, people living in the most deprived areas were 2.5 times as likely to die with Covid-19 as those in the least deprived areas. The size of this gap has widened from 2.1 to 2.5 over the period of the pandemic.