THE Winchester district has seen its first coronavirus death in nearly a month, with its eighth consecutive daily double-digit increase in cases.

The death was reported by the Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust. The hospital has not been revealed. The previous HHFT death was reported on September 17.

In the Winchester district there have been 15 cases reported in the last 24 hours.

New cases continue to rise fast in both Winchester and Hampshire.

The figure reported in the last 24 hours for the county council area has risen by 135 from 6,995 to 7,130 and in Winchester district from 688 to 703.

The infection rate in the city council district is 563.0 people in every 100,000 since the start of the crisis in the spring. The rate in the district for the last seven days to yesterday, is 60.7 people per 100,000. On the week to October 4 the figure was 47.5.

There have been 89 new cases reported in the Winchester district in the last seven days, up four from yesterday's rolling seven-day total of 85.

The 'Winchester district' comprises more than the city and is the city council area which stretches from Micheldever in the north to Southwick in the south.

In the previous week, ending on Tuesday October 6, the number was 61, (up from 55). The sharp increase in new cases started from the beginning of this month.

Hampshire Chronicle:

No other new deaths have been reported in Portsmouth, Southampton or the Hampshire County Council area in the last 24 hours.

Nationally, 143 deaths have been reported in the UK today, bringing the number of confirmed deaths to 43,018, according to the ONS website. It is the highest daily increase since June 3.

Today the rate of infection in Hampshire stands at 515.7 cases per 100,000 people since the crisis began, far lower than the England average, 960.1. The Winchester rate (563.0) remains higher than the county but much lower than nationally.

There have been 634,920 cases of the virus across the UK. This is an increase of 17,234 in the last 24 hours, up on the 13,972.

The number of deaths in Hampshire hospitals is 619. The figure for fatalities at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which includes the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, is 163. For the other local county trusts, Portsmouth Hospital, 237; Solent, 2; Southern Health, 17; University Southampton, 200.

But the R number in the south-east is steady at between 1.2 and 1.4 meaning that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 12 and 14 other people.

The growth rate in the south east region is now between +2% and +7%, meaning the number of new infections is growing by up to 7% every day, an increase of one per cent.

Regarding Covid patients admitted to hospital, the latest figure is 27 reported on Sunday, down 3 from Saturday, in the south-east region, which includes Hampshire. There are today 200 with the condition in hospital, up 13 on Monday, with 10 on ventilators today, the same, according to the ONS. The numbers are not broken down for hospitals in Hampshire.

The Chronicle asked Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust how many Covid patients there are in the RHCH but it has not responded.

Total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic of people who had had a positive test result for Covid-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test, remains: Hampshire, 728 (52.7 per 100,000 people), Portsmouth, 79 (36.8) and Southampton, 123 (48.7). The Winchester district figure, the city council area, is 78, a rate of 62.5, higher than the other three areas mentioned.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Other coronavirus news:

Winchester coronavirus hotspots revealed.

'Winchester East' saw more positive cases of coronavirus than anywhere else in the Winchester district in the last seven days, new figures reveal.

Based on Public Health England figures, the tool breaks down positive cases by Middle Super Output Areas (MSOA) in England, small areas with an average population of around 7,200.

Read more here

Hampshire will be placed in the lowest of three tiers for Covid-19 risk.

Read more here