THERE were six deaths involving COVID-19 in Fife in the past week.

Latest figures from National Records of Scotland (NRS) show that between October 4 and 10, a total of six people died in Fife with coronavirus mentioned on the death certificate.

It’s one less than the previous week, when seven deaths were recorded.

The recent figure takes the total of deaths in Fife to 555 since the start of the pandemic, with 245 recorded in 2021.

In the latest week of NRS data, there were 126 deaths across Scotland, 17 fewer deaths than the previous week.

A total of 76 were aged 75 or older, 24 were aged 65 to 74 and 26 were under 65.

Of deaths involving COVID-19 in the latest week, 82 were male and 44 were female.

Glasgow City (14 deaths), West Dunbartonshire (10), and South Ayrshire (9) had the highest numbers of deaths at council level.

In total, 24 out of Scotland’s 32 council areas had at least one death last week.

Nine COVID-related deaths occurred at home or in non-institutional settings, 98 deaths were in hospitals and there were 19 deaths in care homes.

Pete Whitehouse, director of statistical services, said: “The latest figures show that last week there were 126 deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. This is 17 fewer deaths than last week.

“With 1,353 deaths from all causes this week, this is now the 20th consecutive week with excess deaths above the five-year average and is the highest level of excess deaths (315 this week) since week 1 (January 4-10) of 2021.”