Another 2,768 Covid cases have been confirmed in Scotland as the nation's virus death toll sadly increased again.

New data has been published this afternoon by the Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) as part of the national Covid-19 daily briefing.

Nationally, there are 890 patients being treated in hospital which is up 21 from yesterday. There are currently 51 people with the disease being treated in ICUs.

The number of newly-reported positive coronavirus cases recorded by NHS Ayrshire & Arran has gone up 214 to 43,530.

Of the new cases, 85 were from East Ayrshire, 78 in North Ayrshire and 51 attributed to South Ayrshire.

A total of 615,182 positive tests have now been recorded from 3.341 million tests carried out since the start of the pandemic.

According to Public Health Scotland's rolling seven-day infection rate per 100,000 population, Clackmannanshire has the highest rate in the country – at 508.9 as of Tuesday, October 19.

West Lothian has the second-highest infection rate at 463.5 while Stirling is third with 461.3.

In terms of Ayrshire's local authorities, East Ayrshire's rate is 416.1 and it is 359.8 in North Ayrshire. South Ayrshire's is 294.3.

A total of 15 of Scotland's 32 council regions have an infection rate below the national average of 323.4.

7-day infection rate per 100,000 population for each council area...

83.1 Shetland Islands

125.0 Orkney Islands

196.2 Na h-Eileanan Siar

210.7 Highland

233.1 City of Edinburgh

236.2 Inverclyde

240.7 Glasgow City

247.5 Dumfries & Galloway

257.6 Aberdeen City

260.0 Perth & Kinross

262.2 Argyll & Bute

269.5 Midlothian

294.3 South Ayrshire

300.0 West Dunbartonshire

320.8 Moray

335.9 Angus

341.0 East Lothian

342.8 Renfrewshire

347.4 Aberdeenshire

352.8 Dundee City

353.2 Scottish Borders

358.1 East Renfrewshire

359.8 North Ayrshire

369.6 North Lanarkshire

384.3 South Lanarkshire

389.0 East Dunbartonshire

416.1 East Ayrshire

435.1 Fife

444.1 Falkirk

461.3 Stirling

463.5 West Lothian

508.9 Clackmannanshire

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There have been 26 deaths in the last 24 hours which means 8,980 people have passed away since March 2020.

However, data from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) shows 11,406 deaths had been registered up to Sunday, October 17 where the disease was mentioned on the death certificate.

Across the UK, the figure is 138,852 as of last night.

There are 116 patients being treated for the disease in Ayrshire hospitals, which is down two on yesterday, and eight in ICUs, which is up one from yesterday.

Nationally, a total of 4,294,116 people have received the first dose of a Covid vaccine and 3,883,886 have received their second dose.

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