Change is made to Public Health Scotland reporting of Covid cases

Public Health Scotland has changed the way it reports Covid-19 numbers in local areas in order to reduce the risk of individuals being identified.

The national agency's interactive dashboard has a map based on positive cases within specific Scottish "neighbourhoods", seven of which are in Caithness. However, under its revised reporting system, if a neighbourhood has fewer than three positive cases the number is presented as "0-2".

This parameter applies in each of the seven Caithness neighbourhoods for the latest period covered by the dashboard – December 7-13.

A neighbourhood within the "0-2" range could therefore have either zero, one or two positive cases – making it impossible to tell from the dashboard, when numbers are so low, whether Covid is present or not in any given area during that week.

Public Health Scotland said: "Release of local-level information involving small numbers carries a risk that individuals could be identified. We have carefully considered and assessed these risks, taking steps to reduce them as much as possible, and balancing them with the need to release useful information. We have been monitoring and reviewing our approach to how we release local-level information.

"From December 14 we will be making changes to our approach. These changes have also been applied to the historic trend data, going back to March 2020. We will continue to monitor, assess and, where necessary, adapt our approach as the pandemic evolves further."

The seven Caithness neighbourhoods are Caithness North East, Caithness North West, Caithness South, Thurso East, Thurso West, Wick North and Wick South.

The dashboard reported 47 positive cases in the Highland local authority area during the latest seven-day period.

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