COVID-19 is definitely on the retreat in Winchester district but there a lag with a steady number of people dying.
Three more deaths have been reported in the Winchester City Council area in the last 24 hours, bringing the number since the start of the pandemic to 125, or 100.1 per 100,000 people.
Twenty deaths have been reported so far in 2021, 16 per cent of the total in only two weeks. In the last nine days there has only been one day without a death reported.
Across the Hampshire County Council area 34 deaths have been reported, says the Office for National Statistics today. These are when deaths are reported not when they happened.
These fatalities would have been people contracting the virus several weeks ago when the number of cases was rising fast. Even as the number of new cases declines it will be a while before deaths and hospital admissions falls.
Winchester has been joined by East Hampshire as the only district in Hampshire, not coloured either purple or black on the official Government Covid map. It means its infection rate is now below 400 per 100,000.
The number of cases reported in the last seven days is again lower than in the previous week. Today there were 84 cases, taking to 442 the number for the last seven days. The previous week had 557 cases. Today's number of 84 is the third highest this year. The map below shows the Government figures for the seven days to last Sunday January 10.
The number of cases in the Winchester district since the start of the pandemic is now 3,773, an infection rate of 3,021 per 100,000, well below the UK average of 5,125.
There are now only 69 local authority area out of 315 in England where the infection rates are lower. The Isle of Wight and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are both in the worst ten.
Across the Winchester district only one place has an infection rate higher than the UK average and that is Denmead and Southwick where there has been 81 new cases, down 8 week on week, a drop of 9 per cent, with a rolling number of 789.8, slightly up. It is marked purple on the official map (below), instead of the worst rating of black.
Things continue to cool slowly in Oliver’s Battery and Hursley. In the seven days to January 10, 28 cases were reported, down 16 on the previous seven days, a decrease of 36 per cent. The rolling number per 100,000 people has risen to 342.5, but still below the UK average. See map below.
Another area that had seen sharp rises was South Wonston, Sutton Scotney and Micheldever. But in the seven days to January 10, there have been 22 cases, down 16, down 42 per cent, for a rolling rate of 374.3.
Numbers have dropped sharply in Springvale and Itchen Abbas. There were 14 cases, down 16, or 53 per cent, for a rolling number per 100,000 of 203.6. See map below.
The Winchester ‘district’ covers more than just the ‘city’ and covers a chunk of Hampshire from Micheldever to Denmead, and Crawley to Ropley.
Numbers across the Hampshire County Council area are falling too. Some 7,180 have been reported in the seven days to January 10, down 660 or 8.4 per cent, for a rolling number of 519.3, which is above the UK average, but falling.
In the HCC area there were 1,134 positive test results in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 45,807, or 3,313 per 100,000.
Another 34 people are reported to have died of Covid-19 in the HCC area in the last 24 hours. It brings to 1,415 the death toll since the start of the pandemic, or a rate of 102.3 per 100,000, now above the Winchester number. In Southampton the figure is 186, up three, or 73.7 per 100,000. In Portsmouth the figure is 194, for 90.3 per 100,000.
A further 20 Covid-19 deaths have been reported by NHS England in Hampshire today. The Hampshire Hospitals Trust death toll is now 297, up two. At Southampton Hospital the figure is 297, up six. Portsmouth Hospitals Trust recorded a further 12 to take its total to 557. Southern Health Trust is now 30 deaths, no change, with the figure for the Solent NHS Trust staying at four.
Across the county’s NHS, the five trusts mentioned above, some 1,185 people have died since March, within 28 days of a positive test.
The most recent figures from the NHS, released on Monday, show there are currently 84 Covid patients at the RHCH compared to 57 last week and 126 at Basingstoke hospital compared to 105 previously. There are five patients at Andover War Memorial Hospital.
The R number, the reproduction rate has again dropped. For the south-east it is now 1.0 to 1.2, meaning ten people with Covid will infect between 9 and 13 people.
More Covid news:
RHCH taking patients from other hospitals in south-east
Taxi drivers offer free service for Winchester pensioners going to be vaccinated
Fake news hoaxer issues statement after being fined £200 by police
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