Viral respiratory diseases in Scotland surveillance report

About this release

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.

The Viral respiratory diseases in Scotland narrative report will return to weekly reporting on 8 October 2026. Please note there will be several changes introduced for the 2026/27 season, such as an upgrade of NHS 24 symptom definitions, refinement of the lab-confirmed hospital admissions identification process, and expansion of the number of sites included in syndromic SARI. Some other changes may still require further adjustment and hence these outputs should be considered as Official Statistics in Development. For full details of these changes please see details available in the technical information section of our website.

Please note, due to a technical issue, COVID-19 data is incomplete for weeks 38 and 39 in laboratory surveillance and pathogen-confirmed hospitalisation data. Figures for both weeks are provisional and subject to change once this is updated in next week's report. Week 40 data are unaffected EuroMoMo data has not yet been processed for week 40. Data presented is correct to week 39. 

Main points

For the period 28 September to 4 October 2026 (ISO week 40):

• Syndromic indicators of respiratory infections remain at baseline activity, typical for this time in the season.
• Pre-season increases in influenza have been detected in both laboratory and community acute respiratory infection (CARI) surveillance. While activity remains at baseline overall, case rates in laboratory surveillance and test positivity in CARI are higher in week 40 than all previous reported seasons. Activity levels among laboratory confirmed cases increased from baseline to low in adults aged 65 years and over, who accounted for over half of all influenza-confirmed hospitalisations.
• Despite detection of low COVID-19 activity in laboratory surveillance data, case rates remain below those observed during previous seasons. In CARI community surveillance, COVID-19 test positivity remained stable between week 39 to week 40.
• RSV remains at baseline activity across surveillance systems, comparable to this time last season.

Further information

The next report will be published on 15 October 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