Two more schools affected by Covid in Winchester district

The Westgate Secondary in Fulflood, Winchester, and St John the Baptist primary in Waltham Chase, near Bishop's Waltham, have been added to the Hampshire County Council list of affected schools, updated this afternoon.

No further information was available about whether it is pupils or staff affected and neither school was available for comment.

They join Kings' secondary in Winchester and Micheldever Primary on the list of schools affected since reopening at the start of last week after a three-month closure. Micheldever has temporarily closed. For several days there had been no Winchester schools affected and a handful across Hampshire. Countywide there are now 33.

New cases of Covid are rising in four areas of the Winchester district and across the area as a whole, according to figures released today and shown on the maps below.

Figures for the past few days show that the decline in Covid cases has stopped and now looks to be edging up, although those increases are very small.

But no deaths have been reported in the Winchester district for 17 days and only three across the whole of the NHS in Hampshire.

Cases are still rising in the two new mini-hotspots.

South Wonston, Sutton Scotney and Micheldever numbers released Friday March 19

The most recent is in the South Wonston, Sutton Scotney and Micheldever area which has forced the temporary closure of Micheldever Primary School after a number of Covid cases were reported.

Today it was reported that in the seven days to Sunday March 14 there were eight new cases, an increase of six, or 300 per cent, from the previous seven days, giving a rolling number per 100,000 people of 136.1, well above the national average.

The area of Whiteley, Knowle and Wickham has seen a 75 per cent increase, week on week, in new Covid cases. The number has risen from four to seven, for the week ending Sunday March 14, the most recent day for which localised figures are available. The rolling number per 100,000 people is 59.8, slightly down on yesterday and smack on the national average.

Whiteley, Knowle and Wickham numbers released Friday March 19

There have been small increases in two other areas: Winchester East (Winnall and Highcliffe), three cases, up one, rolling 36.8; and Alresford, four, up two, 47.3.

Colden Common and Twyford is now back under three cases and so marked as white on the Government map.

Other statistics shows that the decline in Winchester has stopped and the district has been overtaken by dozens of other places.

But for the 17th day running no Covid deaths have been reported in the Winchester district, the first time this has happened since the summer.

Meanwhile new figures out yesterday show that 85.7 per cent of over-55s in Winchester district have received the first vaccine, a higher percentage than Southampton (81.6 per cent) and Test Valley (83 per cent). Portsmouth (87.7) and Fareham (89.5). The figures go up to Sunday March 14.

Today (Friday) four new cases were reported across the district which covers more than just the city but includes countryside from Micheldever to Denmead.

The eight areas, where there have been fewer than three cases in the last seven days to Sunday March 14, are:

Winchester West;

Winchester Central and South;

Winchester North and Sparsholt;

Stanmore;

Oliver’s Battery and Hursley;

Colden Common and Twyford;

Bishop's Waltham and Waltham Chase;

Swanmore, Hambledon and West Meon.

These areas are now marked white on the Government's Covid interactive online map.

In the Winchester district as a whole official figures in the week to Sunday March 14 there were 41 cases, up 14 or 52 per cent, for a rolling rate per 100,000 people of 32.8, up on recent days, showing the recent decline has stopped and may be reversing.

In the seven days to today there have been 42 new cases, now the same as the previous week’s 42.

Winchester numbers edging up, Friday March 19

Across Hampshire the numbers are still dropping with 478 cases, down 20 (4 per cent) for a rolling 34.6.

The Press Association national news agency reported that the figures to Friday March 12 show 125 places out of 315 in the UK with a better record than Winchester. On March 1 there were only 15 better.

The number of Winchester district cases since the start of the pandemic is now 4,831, for a rate per 100,000 people of 3,869. No new deaths have been reported keeping the number at 183, a rate of 146.6 per 100,000 people.

As reported, the Covid burden at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has continued to ease. On Monday there were only 25 patients across the HHFT; 15 in Basingstoke and nine in the RHCH and one in Andover. The previous Monday, March 8, there were 30 patients – 20 at Basingstoke, 10 at RHCH.

Across the NHS trusts in Hampshire (Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth, Southern and Solent) three Covid patients have died, taking the overall figure at 1,869. There was one death in HHFT, Portsmouth and Southampton. The numbers of Covid patients who have died in the HHFT hospitals is now 438. There is no breakdown on where the deaths occurred.