East Ayrshire’s weekly Covid totals continue to decline, with cases dropping by more than 150 in the past week.

The latest Public Health Scotland figures show that there were 439 positive tests returned in East Ayrshire between November 14-20.

That’s a decrease from 605 the week before and gives us a seven-day rate per 100,000 of population of 361.

It means we are in a much better position than we were in recent weeks, when we were one of the worst affected council areas in the country.

On vaccinations, 92.4 per cent of the population aged above 12-years-old in East Ayrshire have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, an increase of 0.02 on the previous week. 84.2 per cent have had two doses, up 0.02 on the week before and 28.6 per cent have now had three, up 4.9 per cent.

Last week, figures from the National Records of Scotland showed that there were 5 deaths of people in East Ayrshire, down from 14 the week before.

Nicola Sturgeon confirmed yesterday that the vaccine certificate scheme will not be extended to other venues and events.

The government had been looking at whether the scheme should be expanded to encompass more settings.

Speaking in Holyrood yesterday she said: “Cabinet decided this morning to retain for a further period all the remaining legal protections, such as the requirement to wear face coverings and subject to a change I will set out shortly to keep in place the Covid certification scheme, and intensify our public information campaign in the weeks ahead.”