Big rise in virus cases in past week
NEW cases of coronavirus have risen again in the Derbyshire Dales in the past seven days.
The total number of people with at least one positive Covid-19 test result in the district as of yesterday was 178. At the same time last week the figure stood at 137.
Our rate per 100,000 population is now 246.1, up from last week’s 189.4.
The Derbyshire Dales is still comfortably lower than any other area in the county, but more localised data shows a few unwelcome spikes in and around Ashbourne.
Last week we reported that the number of new cases had fallen slightly in the Ashbourne North ward, which encompasses Dovedale and Carsington, but the latest figures show it rose in the last week by 14 cases to 23.
The smaller, more urban Ashbourne South ward saw a slight increase last week, but the number of new cases has just risen again, with 15 new cases bringing it to 27 in the town overall.
However, the number of new infections in both of Ashbourne’s wards are still below the national average.
Looking around the district at our neighbouring wards, there is good news in Doveridge, Brailsford and Bradley. The ward saw an increase last week, but this week cases have dropped by 12 to 13 in the last week.
But that and the Ambergate, Heage and Idridgehay wards were the only ones bordering Ashbourne that have seen a drop.
All other neighbouring wards have seen increases barring Ipstones, Warslow and Hamps Valley, which stayed the same over the last week.
Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 patients in Derbyshire’s hospitals has surged to record highs. There are now 648 Covid patients in beds at Royal Derby Hospital, Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Queen’s Hospital in Burton.
Before Christmas, this figure stood at around 300, in mid-october it was 75 and for much of the summer very few Covid patients were being cared for.
Royal Derby and Chesterfield Royal are currently treating more than double the number of patients they saw at the height of the first wave.
Derby and Burton hospital chiefs say the level of demand “continues to exceed our worst case scenario”.
Hospital chiefs say the impact of the second strain of Covid-19, believed to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible, is said to be “not yet realised in the East Midlands, but expected mid-january”.
Dean Wallace, Derbyshire County Council’s public health director, said last week that he believed the rapid increases in community infections of the virus in Derby and Amber Valley were being caused by the new strain.
However, Gavin Boyle, chief executive of the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, says that the number of Covid patients in intensive care remains lower than during the first peak, which he attributes to improved treatment.
Nevertheless, these levels are still far more than what the hospital would typically experience, even during the winter, and it has had to call on other staff to help support intensive care staff.
It is working to increase capacity in its intensive care unit.
Royal Derby Hospital has 19 patients in ICU and Queen’s Hospital has eight.
For Royal Derby, this is approaching its first peak high of nearly 30. Queen’s exceeded its peak of around 10 in November.
At Derby and Burton’s hospitals, which last week surpassed 1,000 Covid-19 deaths, the pandemic has now caused a reduction in elective surgeries and treatments “to enable theatre staff to support the pressures of an expanded ICU on both sites”.
It has also cut back on outpatient clinics and diagnostic appointments.
This, it says, “compounds an already challenging position in terms of backlogs and waiting times”.
Mr Boyle said last week: “It is so important that everybody in our communities follows the hands, face, space guidelines and sticks to the lock down restrictions.
“I know that this is onerous, but it is incredibly important, particularly in this phase of our battle against Covid-19.
“We are all in this together. My actions affect you, your actions affect me.
“We need to follow these rules, not only for ourselves, but to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities.”