COVID-19 numbers are now tumbling across Hampshire as well as the Winchester district.

Numbers across Hampshire as a whole had been creeping up. But today Hampshire has joined in Winchester in seeing numbers fall with 378 cases in the week to March 31, down 59 or 13 per cent, for a rolling figure per 100,000 people of 27.3.

As reported yesterday 12 of the 14 areas of the Winchester district are virtually Covid-free with fewer than three cases reported in the seven days to March 31, according to figures released this afternoon.

And numbers in the two mini-hotspots of South Wonston, Sutton Scotney and Micheldever and Wickham, Knowle and Whiteley have fallen, meaning there are now no parts of the districts where the numbers are rising, also a first.

For the 34th day no Covid deaths have been reported in the district.

In South Wonston, Sutton Scotney and Micheldever there have been only three cases, down 10, or 77 per cent, for a rolling 51.0 per 100,000 people. A week ago the rolling number was 221.2.

In Wickham, Knowle and Whiteley there were only four cases, down one, for a rolling 34.2.

March 31 is the most recent day for which localised figures are available.

Across the district only one new case was reported and only 13 in the last seven days to today.

Across the Winchester district as a whole, which covers the city council area and stretches from Micheldever to Denmead, the numbers of new Covid cases week-on-week has again dropped after rising for 15 days. To March 31 some 18 cases were reported, down 28, or 61 per cent, for a rolling number per 100,000 of 14.4, its lowest figure.

The one new case reported across the district today brings the number of people affected since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 to 4,902, a rate of 3,926 per 100,000.

The 12 areas, where there have been fewer than three cases in the last seven days to March 29, are:

Winchester West;

Winchester East;

Winchester Central and South;

Winchester North and Sparsholt;

Winchester Stanmore;

Oliver's Battery and Hursley;

Springvale and Itchen Abbas;

Colden Common and Twyford;

Alresford;

Swanmore, Hambledon and West Meon;

Bishop's Waltham and Waltham Chase;

Denmead and Southwick.

In the seven days to today (Monday) there have been 13 new cases, down from previous week’s 26.

The Press Association national news agency reported that the figures to March 28 show only 60 places out of 315 in the UK with a better record than Winchester. At the start of March Winchester was 15th best but two weeks ago it had slipped to 134th.

Across the NHS trusts in Hampshire (Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth, Southern and Solent) two Covid patients are today reported to have died, edging the overall figure to 1,894. The numbers of Covid patients who have died in the HHFT hospitals remains at 438 with only 11 deaths last month and none this month. There is no breakdown publicly available at which hospitals the deaths occurred.

There are very few Covid patients in local hospitals. Last Monday there were just 12 in the three HHFT hospitals - 10 in Basingstoke, one at the RHCH and one in Andover. On Monday March 22 there had been 16 (14, one and one), a decline this week of 25 per cent.