THE numbers of people in hospital with coronavirus in Winchester district has risen sharply in recent days although the sharp spike in cases looks to be easing.
Twenty Covid-19 patients are in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester and three in Basingstoke.
There have been nine new cases in the Winchester district reported today, according to data published by the Government website this afternoon. That is the lowest daily increase since Monday October 5.
That takes the Winchester district figure to 740 up from 731. In the last 24 hours for the Hampshire County Council area the tally has risen by 116 to 7,543, from 7,427, the smallest rise since Monday.
Some 85 new cases have been reported in the Winchester district in the last seven days, down one from yesterday's rolling seven-day total of 86. The figure for the previous seven days is 87, up from 84, the first time the previous week's rolling number has overtaken the current week's since the summer. It again shows that the steep rise of the last two weeks appears to have reached a plateau.
'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, from Sparsholt in the west to Bramdean in the east.
The latest news comes as the NHS has finally, after not responding to requests from the Chronicle, revealed the number of Covid cases at the RHCH. There were 20 in the RHCH with three at the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.
Data shoes that the infection rate in the city council district is 592.7 people in every 100,000 since the start of the crisis in March. See the graph below:
The rate for new cases in the district for the last seven days to Sunday, is 76.9 people per 100,000 (96 cases). On the week to October 4 the figure was 49.7 (62). Other areas figures are: Portsmouth 99.6 (214), 50.7 (109); Southampton 59.4 (150), 42.4 (107); Basingstoke and Deane 53.2 (94), 30.6 (54); Eastleigh 52.4 (70), 27.7 (37). The lowest rate in the UK is the Isle of Wight 16.9 (24), 12.7 (18).
Nationally, 136 people have died in the UK today – two fewer than yesterday. This brings the number of confirmed reported deaths to 43,429.
There have been 689,257 cases of the virus across the UK. This is an increase of 15,560 in the last 24 hours.
The number of deaths in Hampshire hospitals remains at 620, with the two most recent deaths being in the Winchester district. The figure for fatalities at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which includes the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, is 164. For the other local county trusts, Portsmouth Hospital, 237; Solent, 2; Southern Health, 17; University Southampton, 200.
The R number in the south-east has risen to between 1.3 and 1.5 meaning that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 13 and 15 other people.
The growth rate in the south east region is now between +5% and +8%, meaning the number of new infections is growing by up to 8% every day.
Regarding Covid patients admitted to hospital, the latest figure is 38 reported on Wednesday, down 10 from Tuesday, in the south-east region, which includes Hampshire. There are today 256 with the condition in hospital, up 28 on Thursday, with 12 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, 732 (52.9 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.
Other coronavirus news:
Another case at Winchester University.
Twenty Covid cases at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.
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