THE Boxing Day surge in cases in the Winchester district has settled down.
On December 26 104 new cases were reported, but the figure was 57 yesterday and 56 today, still higher than since the peak of the pandemic in the spring.
The district's number of cases since last March is currently 2,437, with an infection rate of 1,907 per 100,000 people yesterday. Today's infection rate for Winchester was unavailable. The national rate is 3,552 per 100,000.
The 'district' covers more than just the city and covers a swathe of central Hampshire from Micheldever to Denmead.
In the week between December 21-28 (today) there have been 348 new cases reported in Winchester district, compared to 211 in the week to December 20. Winchester is faring better than Southampton and Eastleigh where the rate has more then doubled. In the week to December 16 the figures were 121 in Eastleigh and 395 in Southampton. In the week to December 23 the numbers are 287 and 822.
Fourteen deaths have been reported in the county council area in the last 24 hours with three in the NHS area that includes the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. The county council number of deaths is now 1,026. On Christmas Day 13 deaths were reported, on Boxing Day one, and five yesterday.
The hotspot in the southern parishes at Denmead and Southwick appears to be cooling. In the two villages in the seven days to December 23, 86 cases have been reported, an increase on the week before of just three, a rise of 3.6 per cent. The rolling number per 100,000 people is 838, still amongst the worst in the country.
In the adjacent area of Swanmore, Hambledon and West Meon there have been 23 cases, up two or 9.5 per cent, for a rolling number of 264. These have been the only two areas of the Winchester district where the increases are above the national average. But the latest figure for Swanmore, Hambledon and West Meon have slipped below that mark.
In Winchester East, which comprises Winnall, St Giles Hill, Highcliffe and Bar End, there were 18 cases, up 11, for a rolling number of 221, an increasing figure.
The numbers are climbing again in Alresford, where numbers rose so sharply last month that Perins secondary school closed. In the week to December 21 there were six cases, up three, for a rolling rate of 70.9. But for the week to December 23 to figure is 20, up 17, or 566 per cent, for a rolling number of 236.
Across Winchester district in the seven days to December 23 there have been 311, up 131, or 72.8 per cent, for a rolling number of 249.1, a sharper increase than recently.
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 12 people are reported today to have died. Across the county’s NHS some 885 people have died since March.
In Winchester City Council area the figures for deaths is 104, up one since Christmas Eve. In Portsmouth it is 133 up nine since Christmas Eve, and 142 in Southampton, up three.
The Office for National Statistics reports that 1,026 have died in the Hampshire County Council area, with an increase of 33 since December 24.
So far, at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust there have been 239 deaths, up three since yesterday; 238 people have died at University Hospital Southampton, up one, whilst at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust the toll is now 381, up eight.
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