THE Winchester district has seen the highest daily number of reported cases since the height of the first lockdown in the spring.
The district has seen 104 cases reported today taking the number from 2,220 to 2,324 since the start of the pandemic, with an infection rate of 1,861 per 100,000 people. The national rate is 3,442 per 100,000.
Across Hampshire in the seven days to December 21 there were 3,452 new cases, an 87.3 per cent increase on the 1,609 in the previous seven days to December 14.
Only one death has been reported in the county council area in the last 24 hours with none in the NHS area that includes the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. The county council number is now 1,007. On Christmas Day 13 deaths were reported.
The southern parishes of Denmead and Southwick are still seeing their numbers climb as they have for several days.
In the two villages in the seven days to December 21, 92 cases have been reported, an increase on the week before of 41, a rise of 80 per cent, shallower than recently. The rolling number per 100,000 people is 897, amongst the worst in the country.
In the adjacent area of Swanmore, Hambledon and West Meon there have been 24 cases, up 6 or 33 per cent, for a rolling number of 275. These are the only two areas of the Winchester district where the increases are above the national average.
In Winchester East, which comprises Winnall, St Giles Hill, Highcliffe and Bar End, there were 15 cases, up 6, for a rolling number of 184. In Alresford, where numbers were climbing so sharply last month that Perins secondary school closed, there have been 6 cases, up 3, for a rolling rate of 70.9.
Across Winchester district in the seven days to December 21 there have been 277, up 150, or 118 per cent, for a rolling number of 221.9, a sharper increase than recently.
The 'district' covers more than just the city and covers a swathe of central Hampshire from Micheldever to Denmead.
The concern is that the infection will spread from Denmead and Southwick up the Meon Valley from Denmead towards the small towns of Wickham and Bishop's Waltham.
The daily increase in Winchester district was 104 today, up from 30 yesterday.
Out of the 300+local authority areas Winchester is now worse off than around 110. Last week for a few days there were only ten better, showing the steady rise in Winchester, probably caused by the proximity of the Winchester district to the badly-affected areas of Portsmouth and Havant.
The most recent figures from the NHS show there are currently 31 Covid patients at the RHCH compared to 30 last week and 44 at Basingstoke hospital compared to 45 previously.
In the NHS across Hampshire no people are reported to have died today, although 15 were reported yesterday. Across the county’s NHS some 867 people have died since March.
In Winchester City Council area the figures for deaths is 103, up one. In Portsmouth it is 124, up one, and 139 in Southampton, no change.
The Office for National Statistics reports that 1,007 have died in the Hampshire County Council area, with an increase of one today.
So far, at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust there have been 236 deaths, no change since yesterday; 237 people have died at University Hospital Southampton, no change, whilst at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust the toll is now 367, no change but there were 10 reported yesterday.
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