A TOTAL of nine coronavirus deaths were recorded in Fife last week.

Latest figures from National Records of Scotland (NRS) show that between January 10 and 16, a total of nine people sadly passed away in Fife with coronavirus mentioned on the death certificate.

It is one less than the previous week when 10 deaths were recorded.

The most recent figure takes the total number in Fife to 677 since the start of the pandemic.

The statistics from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) revealed that there were 132 COVID-19 related deaths registered across Scotland, an increase of 60 deaths from the previous week.

NRS say the large rise in deaths this week was partly due to registrars catching up on a backlog of death registrations following office closures over the holiday period however they said this does not explain all of the increase.

The council with the highest number of deaths was North Lanarkshire with 14. There were 13 in South Lanarkshire and 12 in the City of Edinburgh.

In total, 25 council areas (out of 32) had at least one death involving COVID-19 last week.

Of the 69 men and 63 women who passed away, 91 were aged 75 or older, 21 were aged 65 to 74, and 20 were under 65.

A total of 77 deaths were in hospitals, 45 were in care homes and 10 were at home or a non-institutional setting.

Pete Whitehouse, NRS' Director of Statistical Services, said: “The latest figures show that last week there were 132 deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. This is 60 more deaths than the previous week.

“The number of deaths from all causes registered in Scotland in this week was 1,501, which is 27, or two per cent, fewer than the five year average.”