This video shows how coronavirus spread across Scotland throughout 2020

This new interactive graphic reveals how coronavirus infection hotspots changed in Scotland throughout 2020 – and which neighbourhoods have been hit hardest at different points in the pandemic.

Public Health Scotland recently released neighbourhood-level Covid-19 case data for the first time following pressure from the JPIMedia Data Unit for greater transparency with localised figures.

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It had previously argued the data should not be released as it could breach patient confidentiality. 

Public Health England has been providing neighbourhood-level data throughout the pandemic.

Scotland is divided into more than 1,200 ‘intermediate data zones’ – small geographical units which contain between 2,500 and 6,000 households, often used in official statistics.

The new weekly PHS figures have been backdated to early in the pandemic, and show how coronavirus spread across these neighbourhoods between the weeks ending March 9th and December 28th.

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The JPIMedia Data Unit has crunched the figures to create an animated map of the year.

Areas are shaded according to how many coronavirus cases per 100,000 people were recorded, by test date. The darker the colour, the higher the rate.

You can explore the map in more detail at the bottom of the page, or watch it in the video below.

How has the virus spread?

The time series shows the virus largely concentrated in the Central Belt between the end of March and May.

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Infections subsided between June and July across most of the country but large swathes of the  mainland began to be engulfed in red from October through to the end of the year.

Where has had the highest infection rate?

Ruchill in Glasgow saw the single highest coronavirus rate in 2020, with 3,796 cases per 100,000 people recorded in the seven days to September 28th.

In the last week of the year, the highest rate was in Stranraer South in Dumfries and Galloway, with a rate of 1,594 cases per 100,000.

Stranraer East and West were the only other two neighbourhoods with rates of at least 1,000 in the week ending December 28th. 

Play, pause and hover over areas in the graphic below to see how many cases there have been where you live.