Omicron in Fife: Sharp rise in confirmed cases in last 24 hours

The region had recorded just two instances of the highly transmissible variant until Monday December 14.

But that figure rose to 15 by today.

The latest data, published by Public Health Scotland, came as the Kingdom recorded a further eight deaths related to the virus.

That was double the number of deaths, where coronavirus was recorded on the death certificate for the previous week.

The total number of lives lost in Fife to COVID this year now stands at 341.

The latest figures relate to the week starting December 6 which show a total of 84 deaths across Scotland.

Seventeen were aged under 65; 16 were aged 65-74; and there were 51 deaths in people aged 75 or over.

There were 11 deaths in Glasgow City, eight in Aberdeenshire and Fife.

In total, 23 council areas (out of 32) had at least one death involving COVID-19 last week.

A total of 64 were in hospitals, 11 were in care homes, and nine were at home or a non-institutional setting.

The data comes as NHS Fife launches a mass vaccination booster campaign with walk-in clinics opening up in a number of towns, including a 12-hour 8:00am to 8:00pm shift at the former M&S store on High Street, Kirkcaldy - the region’s single biggest vaccine centre.

It comes after evening drop-in clinics were swamped by people seeking boosters earlier this week.

Thank you for reading this article on our free-to-read website. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a subscription to our print newspaper to help fund our trusted, fact-checked journalism.

https://www.localsubsplus.co.uk/nord/dm/FFP/V