Weekly flu deaths in Scotland have reached their highest level in more than 20 years following an “extraordinary” surge in cases before Christmas.
The latest official figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) showed that 121 deaths were registered last week where flu was mentioned on the death certificate.
This was up from 91 flu-related deaths the previous week, with 84 deaths recorded the week before that.
Shortly before Christmas, health officials warned that Scotland was experiencing the highest levels of flu for five years, with the number of cases reaching “extraordinary” levels.
At that point, 24.9 cases of flu were recorded per 100,000 people, the highest incidence rate observed in Scotland since the final week of 2017.
However, since then the flu incidence rate has been downgraded from “extraordinary” to “moderate”, with the fatality figures likely to be lagging behind recorded cases.
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Jillian Evans, head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian, described the number of deaths last week as “sobering” and was a consequence of the amount of flu being passed around.
“It’s on the back of an extraordinary surge of flu incidents in the December period,” she told the BBC.
“Thankfully, incidents of flu have come down. It’s now at moderate levels in Scotland which is very welcome. But we are seeing the effect of that surge translate now into deaths.
“Every one of those could have been considered to be an avoidable death.”
The number of people who died as a result of Covid also increased last week, with 101 fatalities registered, up 17 from the previous week.
As of Sunday 15 January, 16,568 deaths have been registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
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The total number of deaths registered in Scotland last week was 2,020, which is 29 per cent higher than the five-year average.
Ms Evans said the rise in Covid deaths was also likely to be due to an earlier surge in cases, which have now started to come down.
She urged people to ensure that they were vaccinated against both Covid and the flu, pointing out that their spread would pile extra pressure on the NHS this winter.
“All the respiratory illness that we’re seeing and people that are still in hospital just adds another layer to very busy hospitals,” she added.
“We’re not out of the woods as far is winter is concerned and I suspect we’ll not be out of the woods for several weeks yet.”
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