Weekly New Forest Covid numbers – deaths jump to 22 as new cases fall

TWENTY-TWO people died with Covid-19 in the New Forest in one of the highest weekly death tolls of the pandemic, according to the latest update.

The Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday there were 14 fatalities in hospital in the district and seven in care homes.

The figures were close to double last week’s report of 13 deaths, and are near the level seen at the height of the first wave of the coronavirus early last year.

The number of people in the New Forest to have died in total since the start of the pandemic has reached 296.

In the BCP Council area, which covers Christchurch, Bournemouth and Poole, there were 70 weekly deaths reported, including 44 in hospital and 25 in care homes.

The latest provisional figures from ONS relate to instances where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate up to 15th January but were registered up to 23rd January.

In the New Forest the number of new weekly cases continued to fall, with 501 reported by the government on Tuesday, compared with 628 the same time last week and 754 the week before that.

It means the case rate per 100,000 people stands at 278.2 – down from 348.7 last Tuesday and still below the UK average of 374.8.

In the BCP Council area, new weekly cases stood at 2,558 – down from 3,320 the week before. The case rate stands at 647.1 per 100,000 people.

By comparison, the highest case rate in the UK is 901.5 in Knowsley, Merseyside.

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