Covid-19 cases around Scotland have begun to reduce in recent weeks, with test positivity rates dropping below 5 percent – the World Health Organisation’s definition of a pandemic “under control”. But this has not been factual of all areas of Scotland. While the drop in cases is beginning to translate to a drop in hospital patients, intensive care units around the country are still battling an influx of cases, in some areas more than others.

At the age of 35, Richard Linning, from Falkirk, has found himself fighting for every breath. Now wearing a high-pressure oxygen mask, Richard says he is in a state of shock after testing positive for Covid-19 and being admitted to Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

"At the beginning of last week I was perfectly fine and then I got a really sore headache," he says. "For three days I was in pure agony. "And then I started struggling to breathe and that's when it started to deteriorate."

A portrait of his 10-year-old son Blair sits beside him in the Covid-19 intensive care bay at the hospital, where he has been since Saturday.

Older people are more at risk of developing severe disease or dying from coronavirus. But Heather Riddoch, the senior charge nurse here, says they have seen a different profile among some patients in the second wave. "We're certainly seeing younger patients that are coming in and requiring ventilatory support," she says. "All ages contract Covid, but we are seeing more people ending up in intensive care in their 30s and 40s in this second wave."

UK records coldest February night since 1955 as mercury plunged to Minus23C

Corona fatalities in Africa surged amid new variants: WHO

Death toll from corona in Mexico surpasses 170,000