OVER-60S COVID INFECTION RATE UP BY NEARLY A THIRD
KENT VARIANT ACCOUNTS FOR MORE THAN 90% OF CASES
THE coronavirus infection rate among the over-60s in North East Lincolnshire has risen nearly a third in a week according to the latest council report into the progress of the pandemic in this region.
In this age category the infection rate is now 91.5 cases per 100,000 people, up from 66 one week ago with the rise being heavily associated with two outbreaks in the health and care sector. The Kent variant of the virus has continued to be the most common strain found during testing and has consistently accounted for more than 90% of cases recorded in the last three weeks. The North East Lincolnshire Council report said: “The infection rate of Covid-19 in North East Lincolnshire has risen in recent weeks and is now above the national average for infection rates following falls in other parts of the country.
“This is associated with a number of significant outbreaks that have occurred in factories and the health and social care sector.
“The weekly rate of new Covid-19 infections in the borough up to February 24th stands at 136 per 100,000, up from 117 per 100,000 one week ago. The positivity rate is now 5.8 per cent, up from 4.8 per cent one week ago. “A new variant of Covid-19 which is more contagious was identified in around 95 per cent of positive test samples that have been tested for the variant during the last two weeks in North East Lincolnshire.
“This appears to be associated with the increased risk of outbreaks in indoor settings such as factories, care homes and workplaces.”
As of March 1, 7,681 North East Lincolnshire residents had tested positive for Covid-19 based on pillar 1 tests and pillar 2 tests, an increase of 200 cases since the previous week.
Since February 1, 2021, 700 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in North East Lincolnshire with the majority of cases in the working age population between 21 and 60 and a higher number in females specifically in the working age age-band.
The presence of the Kent variant in positive Covid-19 tests has been monitored as an area of concern since early December, samples from tests carried out in North East Lincolnshire detected the variant in an ever increasing proportion which has been well above 90 per cent for the past three weeks. The number of coronavirus positive patients being treated in Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital peaked at 90 on November 23, this has been consistently reducing and on March 1 it was reported that there were 33 Covid-19 positive inpatients, a reduction of three from the previous week.
The North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group care home tracker currently reports that four care homes have a total of 19 active cases of coronavirus among their residents. This represents an increase of seven cases from the previous week.
A total of 323 deaths have now been registered in North East Lincolnshire with Covid-19 identified as a cause of death, with 254 being North East Lincolnshire residents and 69 being residents of other local authorities.
The report states: “For twelve of the last seventeen weeks North East Lincolnshire recorded more deaths than would be expected for this time of year with a combined excess of over 200 deaths during this period. “November and December brought the highest number of excess deaths of the pandemic in our area but they have fallen considerably since then and so far in 2021, in four out of six weeks deaths were less than expected.
“In North East Lincolnshire there have been no deaths registered in children. Seventeen deaths were of people aged under 60 years. Overall, the majority of deaths were of people aged over 80 years.”
In total 220 deaths of North East Lincolnshire residents have occurred in the second wave of the pandemic (defined as September onwards).
In all, 127 (58 per cent) deaths have occurred in males and 93 (42 per cent) in females while 23 second wave deaths have occurred in people under the age of 70.
Some 101 (46 per cent) of the deaths in the second wave have occurred in hospital and 101 (46 per cent) in care homes. Care home residents comprise half of all deaths that have occurred in NEL residents during the second wave as some care home residents died in hospital.
Limited information of Covid-19 vaccination coverage is available nationally or locally. As of March 1, 20,275,451 people in the UK have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, 815,816 of which have now received the second dose.
In North East Lincolnshire more than 93 per cent of people over the age of 70 and older care home residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.