NHS Grampian down to single digits of Covid patients in hospital
Jillian Evans from the Health board tells Northsound figures now sit at similar levels to early October - which bodes well as we begin to ease restrictions.
Last updated 29th Mar 2021
Covid stats in the North East are beginning to reflect what they were back in early October of last year.
Over the weekend it was confirmed that NHS Grampian hospitals now had single digits of patients with Covid, the first time that's been the case since October 9th.
As of today the figure had dropped by a further person to eight.
That bodes well as the country prepares to begin easing restrictions again.
Jillian Evans is the health board's Head of health intelligence, she told Northsound:
"Single numbers of people in hospital, which is great news.
"In terms of case numbers it definitely has leveled off. Particularly in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire."
She continued: "The case rates that we have are broadly similar to what we had in October."
So what does that mean going forward? Jillian told us we are heading into the easing of restrictions in a good place, with both the vaccine roll-out and lockdown working hand-in-hand to drive down the prominence of the virus.
But a cautious approach still remains the desired focus, with it important to monitor how re-opening communities will impact case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths and how the vaccine can help off-set that.
And of course it looks even more likely that to gain more freedom domestically, we will have to accept a Summer without holidays abroad, with foreign variants of Covid remaining the biggest threat to all of this good work.
Jillian said: "What I'm hoping for is that people don't travel abroad, and can't travel abroad over the Summer holidays
"I know that for a lot of us that is really disappointing, but I think it is really important if we want to afford ourselves some domestic freedoms as much as possible, then that means some trade offs with travelling outside of our country."
It's expected to be confirmed this week that the stay at home guidance will be replaced with 'stay local' advice in time for the weekend.
Communal worship is also set to return in time for the Easter weekend.
And just around the corner are long awaited hair cuts, with next Monday expected to be the day barbers and hair dressers are granted permission to throw the doors open.