Health bosses say they are not yet “overly worried” about the potential of a new wave of the coronavirus in Dumfries and Galloway.
The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that around one in 40 people in Scotland had Covid-19 in the week ending June 2 – up from one in 50 the week before.
But director of public health Valerie White told Monday’s health board there is nothing to get alarmed about at the moment.
She said: “You may be hearing some talk in the media that are we going to see a rise in cases.
“ I think that’s because of an uptake in England and Wales.
“Scotland has actually been higher than England and Wales for the past few weeks. I’m hoping that things will stay stable.
“Andrew Rideout (public health consultant), who looks at our local surveillance, has not seen anything overly worrying in the local picture at the moment.”
She revealed that 92 per cent of over 75s have taken up the offer of a fourth dose of the vaccine, with uptake “very high” in care homes”.
And she said it was “critically important” that people continue to be vaccinated as coronavirus “still remains a risk”.
She added: “Covid is still out there.
“People don’t know in the same way as before they have Covid as they may just be suffering from a respiratory illness.”
Ms White also revealed that “pathways have been put in place” in Dumfries and Galloway should the region have to deal with cases of the monkeypox virus.
There have been 470 cases confirmed in the UK, 12 of them in Scotland. None have been confirmed in Dumfries and Galloway.
Ms White added: “The symptoms do emerge, it’s not got the asymptomatic transition Covid had.
“You’ll have seen reports in the media that there has been transmission within the men who have sex with men community.
“It’s a disease that could happen to anybody.”
