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 updat

Please note: This year, the scheduled publication dates for the Viral Respiratory Diseases in Scotland report fall on public holidays (25 December 2025 and 1 January 2026). To accommodate this, PHS will bring the publication dates forward to 24 and 31 December 2025 at 12:30 PM as confirmed in correspondence with OSR.

On these dates, a dashboard-only publication will be released, ensuring continued access to statistics on viral pathogen activity throughout the festive period. Full narrative reporting will resume on 8 January 2026.

Main points

For the period, 8 December 2025 to 14 December 2025 (ISO week 50): 

• NHS24 calls relating to respiratory symptoms are at low level overall. GP consultation rates for influenza like illness (ILI) continued to increase within the medium activity level, while acute respiratory infections (ARI) consultations remained at low levels. Very high activity was seen in ILI for younger age groups (<15yrs) and medium ARI activity for 1-4 year olds.
• Influenza activity in Scotland has steadied or decreased in many systems, returning to medium activity overall based on reporting of laboratory-confirmed cases. Cases decreased by 20% to 1918 from 2410, and activity level dropped to high (from very high) in the 1-4 and 5-14 age groups. There were 912 hospital admissions due to influenza in week 50, down from 1039 in week 49. There are no indications of more severe disease as measured by deaths or excess mortality, although there are reporting lags. Influenza A(H3N2) continues to dominate.
• There were 23 ARI confirmed outbreaks in week 50. Twenty of these were in care homes, with 16 caused by influenza A.
• Laboratory-confirmed RSV cases decreased to 405, from 416. Hospital admissions due to RSV also decreased to 264 (from 281 in week 49).
• COVID-19 measures remained stable with activity levels decreasing to low for laboratory-confirmed cases in the 1-4 age group.  
• Laboratory-confirmed human metapneumovirus activity increased to low from baseline, and within the community GP surveillance system CARI, slight increases were seen in adenovirus and parainfluenza test positivity.

Further information

The next release will be on 24 December 2025.

The next narrative report will be 8 January 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