Numbers of new Covid cases continues to rise across Derbyshire

The number of new Covid-19 cases in Derbyshire is continuing to rise as the county tries to escape the highest alert tier three restrictions.
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In the eight days following the end of the nation’s second lockdown, the number of new Covid cases in Derbyshire per week has increased by more than 300.

For the week to December 10, the county as a whole, including Derby, reported 1,669 new infections.

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The county is now recording 300 new cases per day, as opposed to the final week of November the rate dropped to below 150.

Covid-19 cases are continuing to rise again across DerbyshireCovid-19 cases are continuing to rise again across Derbyshire
Covid-19 cases are continuing to rise again across Derbyshire

Experts in the county had wanted to get back to much lower figures, in the region of 50 cases a week or lower.

Case numbers are still much lower than during the height of the second wave near the start of November, when the county was seeing 4,000 new cases a week.

Over the course of the second lockdown, infections in Derbyshire plummeted by more than half in all areas, with some spots surpassing or hitting 70 per cent reductions.

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This brought some local areas – in groupings of 7,500 people – to ‘suppressed’ levels of fewer than three new Covid cases in a week.

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However, weekly rates of new infections per 100,000 people are pushing upwards and have done for several consecutive days in four areas of the county – Bolsover (205), Derby (184), High Peak (149) and South Derbyshire (255).

In Bolsover, between the end of lockdown and December 10, weekly case numbers rose by 41.7 per cent.

Weekly case numbers in Derby have increased by more than a third (34 per cent) from 355 to 476.

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Case numbers in the High Peak have increased from 79 to 137.

South Derbyshire has seen weekly case numbers nearly double since lockdown ended, rising from 140 to 267 (90 per cent).

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Swadlincote in South Derbyshire is to be the base of the county’s first batch of rapid community testing from December 21 in a bid to drive down infections and more accurately track the virus’ spread.

Community testing will then be started in Bolsover and Amber Valley, areas where the rate of infections has remained stubbornly higher than other county areas throughout both waves of the virus.

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It is hoped that these, coupled with the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine being rolled out by Royal Derby Hospital – vaccinating 1,000 people in the first four days – will also help bring the county down through the tiers of restrictions.

Derby itself is also to roll-out its own rapid community testing, targetted at key population groups and high infection areas.

The county and city currently sit in the most extreme measures in tier three, with a review to take place on December 16 with any changes coming into force from December 19.

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Measures are set to be relaxed around Christmas to allow for exclusive bubbles between up to three households.

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Here are the rates of new infections per 100,000 people for each Derbyshire area in the week to December 10, followed by the corresponding number of new cases: Amber Valley 155 cases per 100,000 people (196 new cases); Bolsover 205 (163), Chesterfield: 124 (129); Derbyshire Dales 76 (55); Derby 184 (476); Erewash 113 (131); High Peak 149 (137); North East Derbyshire 114 (115); South Derbyshire 255 (267).

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