NO Covid-19 deaths have been reported in the Winchester district today, but the numbers are rising in Portsmouth and Southampton.

The virus is retreating across the Winchester district but there is a lag with a steady number of people dying.

The number of deaths from the pandemic in the district stays at 130, or 104.1 per 100,000 people.

Across the Hampshire County Council area 31 deaths were reported today, according to the Office for National Statistics. These are when deaths are reported not when they happened. It brings to 1,515 in the HCC area the death toll since last March, a rate of 109.6 per 100,000 people.

These fatalities would have been people contracting the virus several weeks ago when the number of cases was rising fast. Even as the number of new cases declines it will be some time before deaths and hospital admissions keeps pace.

Across the county council area today 537 cases were reported bringing the total to 48,653 for a rate of 3,519 per 100,000. Some 6,159 have been reported in the seven days to January 14, down 1,406 or 18.6 per cent, for a rolling number of 455, which is still above the UK average, but falling.

Winchester and East Hampshire have been joined by New Forest and Test Valley as the districts in Hampshire not coloured either purple or black on the official Government Covid map. It means the infection rate is now below 400 per 100,000.

The number of cases reported in Winchester district in the last seven days to today, Tuesday January 19, is again lower than in the previous week. Today there were only 35 cases, taking to 392 the number for the last seven days. The previous week had 452 cases.

The number of cases in the Winchester district since the start of the pandemic is now 3,954, an infection rate of 3,166 per 100,000, well below the UK average of 5,370.

Across the Winchester district only one place has an infection rate higher than the UK average and that is Denmead and Southwick where there has been 66 new cases in the seven days to January 14, down 14 week on week, a drop of 17.5 per cent, with a rolling number of 643.5, down more than 100 on two days previously.

The infection rate is generally falling but has edged upwards in figures released today. They are up in Oliver’s Battery and Hursley and Winchester East.

In Oliver’s Battery and Hursley in the seven days to January 14, 25 cases were reported, up two on the previous seven days, an increase of 8 per cent. The rolling number per 100,000 people is up to 305.8 compared to 281.3 seven days before.

In Winchester East there have been 20 cases, the same as the week before; the current infection rate is 245.5 compared to 233.2 seven days before.

In South Wonston, Sutton Scotney and Micheldever, in the seven days to January 14, there have been 13 cases, down 16, down 55 per cent, for a rolling rate of 221.2, down sharply.

The Winchester ‘district’ covers more than just the ‘city’ and covers a chunk of Hampshire from Micheldever to Denmead, and Crawley to Ropley.

Deaths reported in Southampton are now 206, up 11, or 81.6 per 100,000. In Portsmouth the figure is 220, up nine, for 102.4 per 100,000, nearly matching Winchester for the first time.

A further 30 Covid-19 deaths have been reported by NHS England in Hampshire today. The Hampshire Hospitals Trust death toll is now 313, up five. The trust runs the RHCH in Winchester. At Southampton Hospital the figure is 322, up 11. Portsmouth Hospitals Trust recorded a further 12 to take its total to 605. Southern Health Trust is now 33 deaths, up one, with one reported for the Solent NHS Trust, to five.

Across the county’s NHS, the five trusts mentioned above, some 1,278 people have died since March, within 28 days of a positive test.

The most recent figures from the NHS, released last Monday, show there are currently 82 Covid patients at the RHCH compared to 84 last week and 152 at Basingstoke hospital compared to 126 previously. There are three patients at Andover War Memorial Hospital, down two.

The R number, the reproduction rate has again dropped. For the south-east it is now 1.0 to 1.2, meaning ten people with Covid will infect between 9 and 13 people.

Three local schools have reported Covid cases in the last 10 days. They are St Bede primary, Kings' secondary and Bishop's Waltham junior.