COVID numbers continue to tumble except for a mini-spike in one area of the Winchester district.

Eight areas of the Winchester district are now almost Covid-free, according to figures released today.

Springvale and Itchen Abbas had been but numbers released today showed it to have seen five cases, up three (150 per cent), in the week to February 23.

The mini-spike in Springvale and Itchen Abbas

The mini-spike in Springvale and Itchen Abbas

Numbers in the Winchester West hotspot, centred on the prison, are falling fast and numbers are tumbling everywhere including Whiteley, Knowle and Wickham and Swanmore Hambledon and West Meon where there had been a recent increase.

There are now only seven areas across the whole of the UK with better numbers.

The eight local areas now marked white on the Government map, because they have had fewer than three cases in the seven days to February 23, are:

Alresford;

South Wonston, Sutton Scotney and Micheldever;

Winchester North;

Winchester Central;

Winchester East;

Oliver’s Battery and Hursley;

Stanmore;

Colden Common and Twyford.

In the official figures in the week to Tuesday February 23 there were 38 cases, down 66 or 63 per cent for a rolling rate per 100,000 people of 30.4. The Press Association national news agency reports today that the figures to Sunday February 21 show only eight places with a better record, mostly in the West Country.

Latest numbers for Winchester

Latest numbers for Winchester

Over the last seven days the number of reported new cases have been three (today), eight, six, six, seven, seven and four. This is the lowest run of numbers since September/October.

In the hotspot Winchester West area, which includes the prison, in the seven days to February 23 there were six new cases, a decrease of 36, a fall of 86 per cent, for a rolling week-on-week rolling rate of 60.2 per 100,000, now below the national average.

In the last seven days to today (Sunday) there have been 41 new cases in the Winchester district, down from the previous week’s 86.

The number of Winchester district cases since the start of the pandemic is now 4,729 for a rate per 100,000 people of 3,787. Two new deaths have been reported bringing the number to 181 a rate of 145.0 per 100,000 people. In the last seven days there have been six deaths. The district covers more than just the city but includes countryside from Micheldever to Denmead.

In the last seven days there have been six deaths in Winchester district.