OVERALL Covid-19 rates are still going in the right direction across the Winchester district.
But one area is bucking the trend. In parts of Winchester the decline has reversed. In Winchester East, which covers part of the city centre, Winnall, Highcliffe and Bar End, the rolling seven-day total has risen from 282 on Sunday to 392 today, and has doubled in a week, up from 196 last Thursday.
Its rate is now close to the England average. In Winchester East in the seven days to January 16 there were 32 new cases, up 15, an increase of 88 per cent.
The reason for the recent spike is unclear.
Yesterday the rates in the Winchester district had been falling so sharply that it was almost in the 'best 50' in the UK. Today there are 67 areas better off.
In the seven days to Friday January 16 there were 393 cases, down 70, or 15 per cent for a rolling rate of 314.0 per 100,000 people.
No Covid deaths were reported in Winchester district today. The number of deaths from the pandemic in the district remains at 133, or 106.5 per 100,000.
The Winchester ‘district’ covers more than just the ‘city’ and covers a chunk of Hampshire from Micheldever to Denmead, and Crawley to Ropley.
More good news is that Hampshire has vaccinated the fourth highest number of people in the UK, 166,417; topped only by Cumbria and North-East, Cheshire and Merseyside and Great Manchester, according to figures released today.
Across the Hampshire County Council area 82 deaths were reported today, according to the Office for National Statistics. The number might be so high because yesterday only three were reported. These are when deaths are reported not when they happened. It brings to 1,600 the death toll in the HCC area since last March, a rate of 115.7 per 100,000 people.
These fatalities would have been people contracting the virus several weeks ago when the number of cases was soaring. Even as new cases decline it will be some time before hospital admissions and deaths match the fall-off.
Across the county council area today 610 cases were reported bringing the total to 50,137, for a rate of 3,626 per 100,000. Some 5,901 have been reported in the seven days to January 16, down 1,556 or 21 per cent, for a rolling number of 406.8, which is still above the England average, but falling slowly.
The number of cases reported in Winchester district in the last seven days to today, Thursday January 21, is again lower than in the previous week. Today there were only 50 cases, taking to 365 the number for the last seven days. The previous week had 431 cases.
The number of cases in the Winchester district since the start of the pandemic is now 4,054, an infection rate of 3,246 per 100,000, well below the England average of 5,493.
Across the Winchester district only one place remains a hotspot with an infection rate higher than the England average: Denmead and Southwick. The numbers there are dropping slowly. There were 70 new cases in the seven days to January 16, down 10 week on week, a drop of 12 per cent, with a rolling number of 682.5, up on the previous day but more than 100 down on a week previously.
The Winchester ‘district’ covers more than just the ‘city’ and covers a chunk of Hampshire from Micheldever to Denmead, and Crawley to Ropley.
In Chilbolton, Clatford and Barton Stacey the numbers are now so low that no information is provided. It appears white on the Government maps.
Deaths reported in Southampton are now 218, up eight, or 86.3 per 100,000. In Portsmouth the figure is 231, up four, for 107.5 per 100,000, overtaking for the first time the Winchester figure of 106.5.
A further 17 Covid-19 deaths in Hampshire have today been reported by NHS England. The Hampshire Hospitals Trust death toll is now 316, up six. The trust runs the RHCH in Winchester. The numbers are not broken down for the trust's three hospitals, Winchester, Basingstoke and Andover.
At Southampton Hospital the figure is 325, no change. Portsmouth Hospitals Trust recorded a further 12 to take its total to 630. Southern Health Trust is 37 deaths, no change, with Solent NHS Trust, up one on six.
Across the county’s NHS, the five trusts mentioned above, some 1,315 people have died since March, within 28 days of a positive test.
The most recent figures from the NHS, released on 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 HHFT says the figures only include those who have a positive test for Covid-19 and not other viruses. Patients with a positive test may also being treated for other ailments.
Meanwhile, three local schools have reported Covid cases in the last 10 days. They are Kings' secondary and Bishop's Waltham junior and Shepherds Down special.
Other Covid news:
Mass testing to be 'ramped up' in Hampshire
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