North Ayrshire's Covid-19 death rate has risen over the past week with the area recording its highest number of deaths since February.

The ten lives lost to the virus makes North Ayrshire the joint-second highest death rate area for the past week alongside South Lanarkshire and behind Glasgow, and the figure the highest in eight months when 11 deaths related to Covid-19 were confirmed in February. 

The latest figures released by the National Records of Scotland cover the period from Monday, October 25 to Sunday, October 31.

The news comes after the local authority area saw eight deaths from Covid the previous week, and eight deaths the week prior.

North Ayrshire's infection rate has also risen slightly over the past week.

The latest statistics from Public Health Scotland show that there were 464 positive tests returned in North Ayrshire between October 23-29.

That is an increase of 40 from the week before, and gives us a seven-day rate per 100,000 of population of 345.6.

The Scottish average for this marker is 330.2.

The number of deaths in North Ayrshire in which Covid was mentioned on the death certificate now stands at 205 since the beginning of this year, and 412 since the start of the pandemic.