THE Winchester district has seen another death, the second in two days.
It comes with yet another rise in coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours.

There have been 18 cases reported, according to data published by the Government website this afternoon.

The death is the 79th in the district since March. Before these two, the last death was on September 17.

The figure reported in the last 24 hours for the county council area has risen from 6,995 to 7,285, an increase of 155. In the Winchester district the total sits at 721.

Data shoes that the infection rate in the city council district is 577.5 people in every 100,000 since the start of the crisis in March. See the graph below:

Hampshire Chronicle:

The rate for new cases in the district for the last seven days to Monday, is 60.7 people per 100,000. On the week to October 4 the figure was 47.5.

There have been 97 new cases reported in the Winchester district in the last seven days, up eight from yesterday's rolling seven-day total of 89. The figure for the previous seven days is 68, up from 61.

'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.

Nationally, 137 people have died in the UK today – slightly down on the 143 recorded yesterday.

This brings the number of confirmed reported deaths to 43,155.

There have been 654,644 cases of the virus across the UK. This is an increase of 19,724 in the last 24 hours.

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.

The figures from the NHS does not include the most recent death in Winchester.

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 37 reported on Monday, up 10 from Sunday, in the south-east region, which includes Hampshire. There are today 221 with the condition in hospital, up 21 on Tuesday, with 10 on ventilators today, the same, according to the ONS. The numbers are not broken down for hospitals in Hampshire.

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 79, a rate of 63.3, higher than the other three areas mentioned.

MORE PANDEMIC NEWS

Sir Keir Starmer has called on Boris Johnson to impose a short “circuit-breaker” lockdown across England to bring the coronavirus resurgence under control.

The Labour leader heaped pressure on to the Prime Minister on Tuesday after it emerged he dismissed a recommendation for the measure from Government scientists three weeks ago.

In his most dramatic intervention to date, Sir Keir said a two to three-week national lockdown was needed to improve test and trace and prevent a “sleepwalk into a long and bleak winter”.

He told a televised press conference that Mr Johnson was “no longer following the scientific advice” by proposing “far less stringent restrictions” than suggested by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Sir Keir said: “There’s no longer time to give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt. The Government’s plan simply isn’t working. Another course is needed.”

He said schools must stay open but that all pubs, bars and restaurants should be closed during the circuit-breaker, while firms are compensated so “no business loses out” in order to “break the cycle” of infection.

“If we don’t, we could sleepwalk into a long and bleak winter. That choice is now for the Prime Minister to make. I urge him to do so,” Sir Keir said.