Viral respiratory diseases in Scotland surveillance report

About this release

As part of Public Health Scotland’s commitment to providing clear, concise and accessible viral respiratory data, there have been some improvements to the presentation this season’s viral respiratory report. These have included updates to the accessibility of figures presented in the report and a change in the title of the report from Viral respiratory diseases (including influenza and COVID-19) in Scotland surveillance report to Viral respiratory diseases in Scotland surveillance report.

This weekly release by Public Health Scotland presents epidemiological information on respiratory infection activity, including COVID-19, across Scotland. Due to the dynamic nature of all datasets included in this report, figures contained within each update may be subject to change in future releases. Any revised figures will then be reflected within the latest update.

Main points

For the period, 2 March to 8 March 2026 (ISO week 10): 

• All syndromic respiratory disease indicators remained at baseline activity.
• Laboratory-confirmed influenza indicators remained at baseline activity, with CARI primary care surveillance showing a similar picture for influenza A activity. CARI did show a small increase in influenza B test positivity in week 10 (from 0% to 1.1%), which can be typical at this time of year. Hospital admissions due to influenza A decreased, however two new admissions with influenza B were reported.
• Overall RSV activity remained at baseline levels. Test positivity increased slightly in both laboratory and CARI primary care surveillance. Hospital admissions decreased from 60 in week 9 to 41 in week 10.
• COVID-19 laboratory activity remained at baseline overall and across all age groups except in the 1-4 age group which decreased from medium to low. Hospitalisations continued to decline with those in the highest proportion seen in the 75+ (32.5%).3.2 remains the predominant variant detected through SARS-CoV-2 sequencing, accounting for 75.8% in the most recent complete week of genomic data (week 7).
• Laboratory activity and CARI surveillance decreased for adenovirus. Seasonal coronaviruses and human metapneumovirus (hMPV) decreased in laboratory surveillance however test positivity increased for both within the CARI system.
• All-cause excess mortality remained at baseline activity overall in week 7, the latest week not impacted by reporting delays.

Further information

The next narrative report will be 19 March 2026.

Find out more

Previous Publications

Versions of the Weekly national respiratory report publication released before 30 November 2022 may be found on the Public Health Scotland website.

Versions of the COVID-19 weekly statistical report publication released before 30 November 2022 may be found on the Public Health Scotland website.

Open data

Open data from this publication is available from the following weblinks:

• Viral respiratory diseases Open Data platform
• Flu and COVID vaccination uptake Open Data platform

Further data

• The COVID-19 Vaccine Wastage datafile was updated on 18 April 2024 to include the most recent information.
• The COVID-19 in Adult Care Homes in Scotland datafile was updated on 27 July 2023 to include more recent information.
• 28 September 2022 COVID-19 statistical report publication contains information on COVID-19 infection and vaccination in pregnancy in Scotland.
• 2 March 2022 COVID-19 statistical report publication contains information on Highest Risk (shielding patients list)
• 7 November 2023 Community Acute Respiratory Infection (CARI) surveillance in primary care contains information on flu Vaccine effectiveness in community settings.
• 25 May 2023 Interim 2022/23 influenza vaccine effectiveness: six European studies, October 2022 to January 2023, contains information on flu Vaccine effectiveness in hospital settings.
• 13 January 2024 Estimated number of lives directly saved by COVID-19 vaccination programs in the WHO European Region, December 2020 to March 2023, contains information on lives saved due to COVID-19 vaccination