THE highest number of new Covid cases in Winchester since the springtime peak of the pandemic has been reported today.

This month has seen double-digit increases most days with today's figure hitting 26.

The figure for the Winchester district is 823 up from 797, since the start of the pandemic.

The number of Covid-19 patients in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester has also been rising. On Monday, the most recent day for which figures are available, there were 34 compared to 20 the previous week.

There have been no deaths in the Winchester district reported today although there have been three since last Tuesday bringing the number of people to die in the pandemic to 80. A death has been reported today in Southampton.

In the Hampshire County Council area, that includes Winchester, the tally has risen from 8,063 to 8,270, a daily rise of 207, the highest increase since the pandemic was at its peak.

Some 103 new cases have been reported in the Winchester district in the last seven days. The figure for the previous seven days is 97.

‘Winchester district’ comprises more than just 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.

Data shows that the infection rate in the city council district is 659.1 people in every 100,000 since the start of the crisis in March. See graph below:

Hampshire Chronicle:

The rate for new cases in the district for the last seven days to Friday October 16, the latest available, is 67.3 people per 100,000 (84 cases). On the week to October 9 the figure was 74.5 (93), so a slight decline week on week.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Nationally, 191 people have died in the UK,bringing the number of confirmed reported deaths to 44,158.

Two more schools have reported cases this week: Newtown Soberton Infants in the Meon Valley and Osborne School in Winchester.

The number of deaths in Hampshire hospitals is now 623. The figure for fatalities at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which includes the RHCH in Winchester, is 165. For the other local county trusts: Portsmouth Hospital, 237; Solent, 2; Southern Health, 17; University Hospital Southampton, 202.

Regarding Covid patients admitted to hospital, the latest figure is 40 reported on Sunday, up six on Saturday, in the south-east region, which includes Hampshire. There are today 319 with the condition in hospital, down three on yesterday, with 18 on ventilators today, the same, according to the ONS. The numbers are not broken down for hospitals in Hampshire. The increase in people in hospital on Monday was 101.

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, 734 (53.1 per 100,000 people), Portsmouth, 79 (36.8) and Southampton, 124 (49.1). The Winchester district figure, the city council area, is 80, a rate of 64.1, higher than the other three areas mentioned. But all the Hampshire figures are below the national average.

Other coronavirus news:

A Winchester travel agents has gone into administration as the coronavirus crisis hit overseas tourism.

Read more here

A Winchester school has closed for three days.

Read more here

How the spread of the virus in Winchester compares with Yorkshire.

Read more here

A Meon Valley school has reported a case of coronavirus.

Read more here