Things seldom change for the better in Scotland. Fifty years ago I worked on an investigation for The People newspaper with a guy called Ken Gardener. He was one of the leading investigative journalists in the UK. We discovered appalling conditions for the residents in some “care homes” which were housed in creepy old mansions in the West End of Glasgow. The only thing that was missing was Covid 19. When ever I go into a care home now, I ask myself would I take a plate of soup in this place or a cup of coffee? I wouldn’t then and I wouldn’t now. One man told me how his mother, who was a resident, was appalled to find a hair in the boiled egg she was having for breakfast. Does anyone know how you could get a hair in a boiled egg? Instead of creating sinecures for local government people and fortunes for independent owners, the Scottish Government should take the whole thing into public ownership under the NHS. Save our senior citizens.
As for the pandemic, how are we doing in West Dunbartonshire?
Public Health Scotland has recently launched an enhanced version of its online dashboard on Covid-19 data. The updated dashboard enables analysis and comparison of neighbourhoods within West Dunbartonshire as well as the assessment of local Covid statistics against Scotland and also other Local Authorities with a similar profile.
In the seven days from 6 to 12 October, 174 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in the West Dunbartonshire area, which equates to a rate of 195.7 cases per 100,000 of the population in comparison to the rate of 141.1 cases per 100k for Scotland overall.
Additionally the rate per 100k of the population is higher for the period than a number of other Local Authority areas which would often be used for comparison to West Dunbartonshire.
The dashboard has now been enhanced with local neighbourhood data for each Local Authority. This provides information on new cases and rate per 100k on a seven day average for each of the eighteen intermediate zones in West Dunbartonshire.
The data highlights variation across the authority, with a higher concentration of positive cases and higher rates per 100k in more populated communities.
The data also shows that the date of the highest number of daily cases was 12 October 2020, with 38 new cases confirmed. In addition, recent data shows an increase in the percentage of people testing positive from all tested. On 12 October the seven day average was 17.8%, compared to 5.7% on 12 September.