A NEW Covid mini-hotspot has emerged in the Winchester district.

The area of Whiteley, Knowle and Wickham has seen a 350 per cent increase, week on week, in new Covid cases.

The number has risen from two to nine reported yesterday, for the week ending Thursday March 11, the most recent day for which localised figures are available.

Figures  for Friday March 12, due to have been released this afternoon, are unavailable. This means there are no updated maps from the Government website.

The rolling number per 100,000 people is 76.9, the highest in the Winchester district and above the national average.

It is unclear whether this is just a short-term glitch or the beginning of a wider problem.

Other statistics shows that the decline in Winchester has slowed and the district has been overtaken by dozens of other places.

But for the 15th day running no Covid deaths have been reported in the Winchester district, the first time this has happened since the autumn.

As well as Whiteley, Knowle and Wickham there have been small increases in four other areas: Colden Common and Twyford, three cases, up one, for a rolling 31.5 per 100,000; Winchester West, (Weeke and Fulflood) three cases, up one, for a rolling 30.1; South Wonston, Sutton Scotney and Micheldever, five cases, up three; and Bishop's Waltham and Waltham Chase, three cases, up one, 31.5.

Whiteley, Knowle and Wickham

Whiteley, Knowle and Wickham: yesterday's map. Today's was unavailable

Today (Wednesday) nine new cases were reported across the district. The district covers more than just the city but includes countryside from Micheldever to Denmead.

Eight areas, where there have been fewer than three cases in the last seven days to Thursday March 11, are:

Winchester East;

Winchester Central and South;

Stanmore;

Oliver’s Battery and Hursley;

Swanmore, Hambledon and West Meon;

Springvale and Itchen Abbas;

Denmead and Southwick

and now Winchester North and Sparsholt.

These areas are now marked white on the Government's Covid interactive online map.

In the Winchester district as a whole official figures in the week to Thursday March 11 there were 40 cases, up 11 or 38 per cent, for a rolling rate per 100,000 people of just 32.0, up on recent days, showing the recent decline has stopped and may be reversing.

In the seven days to today (Wednesday) there have been 50 new cases, up from previous week’s 31.

The Press Association national news agency reported that the figures to Friday March 12 show 78 places out of 315 in the UK with a better record than Winchester. Two weeks ago Winchester was 22nd best.

The number of Winchester district cases since the start of the pandemic is now 4,822, for a rate per 100,000 people of 3,862. No new deaths have been reported keeping the number at 183, a rate of 146.6 per 100,000 people.

The Covid burden at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has continued to ease. On Monday there were only 25 patients across the HHFT; 15 in Basingstoke and nine in the RHCH and one in Andover. The previous Monday, March 8, there were 30 patients – 20 at Basingstoke, 10 at RHCH.

Across the NHS trusts in Hampshire (Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth, Southern and Solent) only one Covid patient has died, in Southampton, taking the overall figure to 1,866. The numbers of Covid patients who have died in the HHFT hospitals remains at 437. There is no breakdown on where the deaths occurred.

Meanwhile, only one school in Winchester district is currently affected by Covid and that is Kings' where at least one case was reported last Wednesday. The school has not responded to a request for further information.

There have been two new cases linked to Winchester University and 198 since last September, according to its website.

Winchester district numbers for March 10 released today March 15

Winchester district numbers for March 10 released Monday March 15