Lower immunity sees town hit hard by Covid
THE Royal town of Sutton Coldfield has become the epicentre for rising coronavirus cases, accounting for seven of the top ten Covid-19 rates in the city.
Sutton Coldfield also suffered high rates in the middle of the summer.
Sutton had the top four wards with the highest Covid rates per 100,000 people in the week to October 15 in the latest data released by Birmingham City Council’s Public Health Department.
They were Sutton Trinity (573 cases per 100k), Sutton Mere Green (548), Sutton Wylde Green (538) and Sutton Walmley & Minworth (526).
Two weeks ago Sutton had four of the top ten highest rates.
The other areas in Birmingham’s top ten were Kings Norton South (513) – fifth-highest, Frankley Great Park (490) – sixth-highest, and Stirchley (465) – eighth-highest.
Overall, Birmingham had a collective Covid-19 positive rate of 282.2 cases per 100,000 population, with 3,222 cases in the seven days to October 15. That was up 5.4 per cent on the week before.
Birmingham was ranked 112 of 149 upper tier local authorities in England for its Covid rate.
Trafford in south-east Manchester was the highest at 740.6 cases per 100k and Southwark in south London the lowest with 126.9 cases per 100k.
Cases have increased in all age groups in the latest weekly figures, except for the 80-plus group, which decreased by 20.4 per cent.
The largest increase in cases – of 18.3 per cent – was recorded in the 60 to 79 age group.
Cases also increased in all ethnic groups in Birmingham.
The largest increase was 12.7 per cent in the mixed/other group, followed by an increase of 3.9 per cent in the white ethnic group, which accounted for 50.8 per cent of all cases.
The city council’s public health team said the spread appeared to be ‘‘primarily occurring through household, social and workplace interactions’’.
When asked ten days ago about the high rates in Sutton Coldfield, the public health team indicated it could be down to lower natural immunity – fewer people having had Covid-19 in previous waves of the pandemic – and to spread among secondary school children.
Dr Justin Varney, director of public health for Birmingham City Council, said: “There has been a rise in infections across the city, particularly in secondary school age children, with some spread within households.
“There may be some element of natural immunity providing protection in areas of the city that were hit hardest in the most recent waves and this may explain some of the variation between wards, but this will wane, which is why vaccination is so important.”
But deaths involving Covid are still relatively low across Birmingham. There were 16 deaths, within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test in the seven days to October 16, up from 14 the previous week.
The public health team said one in six of the most critically ill NHS Covid patients were unvaccinated pregnant women.
They were more than twice as likely to be admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 and were less likely to have common virus symptoms like fever or muscle pain as women who were not pregnant.
Pregnant and post-natal women are at greater risk because they are relatively immunocompromised.