Covid cases dip but hospital admission rate stubbornly high
THE number of Covid cases confirmed in the Derbyshire Dales has dropped significantly over the last week - but hospital admission rates remain worryingly high.
With a week to go before the county finds out whether it can slip back into Tier 2 restrictions, the number of new cases has finally dropped - and convincingly so.
According to the latest data, throughout the district, the Derbyshire Dales saw 55 new cases in the last seven-day period up to Monday evening, which was down from last week’s 103 cases in the same period.
This puts the district’s all-important rate per 100,000 population down to 76 - which is half the 142.4 we saw at the same time last week.
More locally, the number of cases in the Ashbourne North and Doveridge, Brailsford and Bradley wards also fell convincingly, to four cases and seven cases respectively.
The smaller Ashbourne South ward is still recording a higher number of cases with eight recorded and neighbouring wards such as the Mayfield, Rocester and Bramshall ward and the Hatton and Burnaston ward - which encompasses Foston - are relatively high.
However, despite a promising outcome for the Derbyshire Dales, the district will only drop to Tier 2 if hospital capacity starts to stabilise in the area.
Queen’s Hospital in Burton currently has more Covid-19 patients in intensive care than it has seen at any stage of the pandemic.
Staff at the hospital, part of the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, are currently caring for 11 Covid patents in intensive care, up from three this time last week. Its previous high was eight intensive care patients on November 9.
Eleven patients all in the same intensive care unit with the same disease is extremely unusual even in a larger city hospital, health officials say, and Queen’s is significantly smaller than its closest neighbour, Royal Derby Hospital.
The overall number of Covid patients at Queen’s has also surged in the past week from 106 to 128, after reducing for the two previous weeks from its 143 second peak high.
The influx in patients at Queen’s may be linked to higher Covid-19 rates in the community in East Staffordshire, which remains significantly higher than areas in Derbyshire.
Overall, there are currently more than 250
Covid-19 patients in
Queen’s Hospital in Burton has more Covid19 patients in intensive care than it has seen at any stage yet
Burton, Chesterfield and Derby’s hospitals, slightly down from 262 last week.
This is still extremely high, despite being lower now than at the height of the second peak, three weeks ago, when Derby and Burton set new records.
Over the summer, our hospitals had seen large periods in which they were not home to any Covid positive patents.
Royal Derby Hospital is currently caring for 100 Covid positive patients. Of these, 11 are in intensive care, an increase from seven last week.
Its second peak high was 162 Covid patients on November 16 and in April it peaked at around 27 Covid patients in intensive care.
As of December 7, Chesterfield Royal Hospital staff are currently caring for 29 Covid-19 patients, of which nine are in intensive care. These are both reductions from 47 and 13 respectively last week.
Chesterfield had peaked at 75 Covid patients in the first wave with 17 in intensive care.
The number of Covid-19 patients in our hospitals is a key piece of information being tracked to decide which tier of restrictions we are placed in.
At the current level, despite falling community infection rates, it may be difficult to argue for Derbyshire to be dropped from Tier 3 to Tier 2.
Gavin Boyle, chief executive of the Derby and Burton Hospitals Trust, said late last month that some of the organisation’s communities may be in Tier 3 into the New Year.
Both the Derby and Burton Trust and Chesterfield are among the first 50 hospitals to begin rolling out the Pfizer and Biontech Covid-19 vaccine this week.
UHDB said it will start administering the vaccine tomorrow and Chesterfield said it aimed to do so this week.
Patients aged 80 and above who are already attending hospital as an outpatient and those who are being discharged home after a hospital stay will be among the first to receive the vaccine, as well as care home workers and NHS workers who are considered higher risk.