JUST last week it seemed that Romsey was recovering from the pandemic.

But the latest Government statistics show a very mixed picture in the area.

Abbotswood and West Wellow has seen its cases double in the seven days to September 3, with a case rate of 423.9. It is now shaded maroon on the Government map, which means it sits in the second worst-affected category possible.

Progress in the Romsey Town district has been erased. In the seven days to August 27, there had been a 33 per cent drop in cases, but in the seven days to September 3, there was a 33 per cent rise. The case rate here sits at 335.1 per 100,000 people.

Yet in the neighbouring district of Romsey Cupernham and Halterworth, the cases are down 35.3 per cent in the same period. Its case rate of 127.1 per 100,000 people is one of the lowest in the Test Valley Borough.

Cases in the North Baddesley and Braishfield ward have risen by 42.3 per cent, with the case rate now sitting at 344.3.

Whiteparish seems to be healing still, with cases nearly halving (a drop of 47 per cent). It has a case rate of 264.3 per 100,000 people.

The number of coronavirus cases in Test Valley increased by 54 in the 24 hours to September 8, the latest figures available when this newspaper went to press. One more death was recorded.

A total of 9,780 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Test Valley, up from 9,726 on Tuesday.

The rate of infection in Test Valley now stands at 7,691 cases per 100,000 people, lower than the England average of 10,792.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 38,486 over the period, to 7,094,592.

There was also one more coronavirus death recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Test Valley.

The dashboard shows 201 people had died in the area by September 8 (Wednesday) – up from 200 on Tuesday.

It means there has been one death in the past week, which is an increase on none the previous week.

They were among 17,758 deaths recorded across the South East.

The figures include anyone who died within 28 days of a positive test result for Covid-19, and whose usual residence was in Test Valley.

Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death.

The figures also show that more than four in five people in Test Valley have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 92,262 people had received both jabs by September 7 (Tuesday) – 82 per cent of those aged 16 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 80% of people aged 16 and above had received a second dose of the jab.

Unlike at local level, the national rate was calculated using mid-2020 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.