Weekly Covid update – 13 deaths in New Forest

MORE than a dozen deaths of people with Covid-19 have been reported in the New Forest in the latest weekly update.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there have been 13 fatalities in the district – up from nine the week before.

It is the highest number locally for several months. Ten were recorded in hospital and two in care homes.

However, the number of weekly new cases reported by the government over the seven days to Tuesday showed the infection rate slowing slightly – down to 628 from 754 last week, following a series of rises.

It put the New Forest’s rate per 100,000 people at 348.7 – a reduction from 418.7 previously. The average in England was 506.5.

In the BCP Council area, which includes Christchurch, there were 30 weekly deaths reported by the ONS, of which 18 were in hospital and 11 in care homes.

The provisional figures from the ONS related to instances where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate up to 8th January but which were registered up to 16th January.

On Tuesday the number of new weekly cases across the conurbation came to 3,320 – just below last week’s total of 3,348. It puts the rate per 100,000 people at 839.8.

By comparison, the highest rate on Tuesday was 1,231.6 in Knowsley in Liverpool. The highest number of weekly cases was 8,267 in Birmingham.

The infection figures are for the numbers of people with at least one lab-confirmed positive Covid-19 test result in the preceding seven-day period.