Local rates remain at highest as the UK tide starts to turn

AS signs start to appear in the national Covid-19 data that new cases of the Omicron variant may have reached a peak in some areas, particularly London, and started declining, rates in the Ashbourne are remain at an all-time high – but the rise does appear to be slowing.

And a few areas in the Derbyshire Dales, including Ashbourne’s urban ward, have actually seen slight decreases in the number of new infections being recorded over the last week.

Last week we reported that there had been 142 cases confirmed in the small Ashbourne South ward – and this has now dropped to 125.

The neighbouring town of Wirksworth had seen 145 cases in the previous seven days and that rate has also dropped, it is now at 107.

However there is still an increase being seen in almost all of Ashbourne’s neighbouring rural wards, with high rates in Mayfield, Rocester & Bramshall, Hatton &

Burnaston, and Duffield, Quarndon & Kirk Langley.

The rates are slightly lower in Ashbourne’s rural ward, Ashbourne North, which encompasses villages such as Tissington and Parwich, but last week the ward’s rate of increase was at 52.5%, whereas this week it is back down to 13.7%.

The gradual slowing trend is echoed in the wider picture, with Derbyshire Dales as a whole still seeing an increasing rate, but with a rise of just 1.1% in the last seven days, it is much slower than the 69.2% we saw last week. Derbyshire’s rate of increase has been measured at 21.8%, while last week it had reached 80.8%.

The UK death toll in the pandemic this week passed 175,000, according to the Office of National Statistics. The figure differs significantly from the Government’s official count – which exceeded 150,000 deaths over the weekend – which requires patients to have had a positive test within 28 days before their death.