Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘No social distancing’ in worst-hit area
A startling insight into the areas in Kent with the most Covid-19 deaths reveals both deprived and affluent wards among those hit hardest.
The Office for National Statistics last week released figures broken down into council boundary areas.
It revealed Cliftonville West in Thanet - one of the country’s most deprived wards - to be Kent’s fatality hotspot, with 13 deaths up to April 17.
Two areas of the Sevenoaks district, which has little poverty but an older population, were also in the top five. Many have speculated on the factors involved in higher death tolls, and in the worst-hit area it’s claimed it could be directly linked to people flouting lockdown rules.
Matt Shoul, who lives in the heart of Cliftonville and runs a local residents association, said: “There hasn’t been a lockdown in Cliftonville West; there is no lockdown on Athelstan Road either.
“If you go out on the street anywhere in Cliftonville West you will see an awful lot of people outdoors anytime of the day or night.
“It’s very difficult not to conclude that total lack of lockdown here, street after street, is resulting in the highest fatality rate in the county.”
Mr Shoul teamed up with a friend in an attempt to help educate those ignoring the rules, even producing posters in Slovak, Czech and Bulgarian for the area’s diverse community - but he says it was to no avail.
“The end result is absolutely nothing,” he said.
“The street’s just full of people sunning themselves, hanging out, drinking - business as usual for Athelstan Road.” Cllr Harry Scobie (Lab), of Cliftonville West, says “poverty and density” are factors in the high number of deaths.
“I am shocked there have been these deaths in Cliftonville West, but not entirely surprised because it’s one of the most densely populated areas in the South East,” he said. “It’s sad that a lot of people haven’t got gardens, many of them live in small flats in buildings packed with other small flats.”
HOSPITAL DEATHS
The number of people dying of Covid-19 in Kent’s hospitals looks set to fall below 10 a day for the first time since the end of March.
Latest figures show that a steady decline in deaths seen recently across the county’s four hospitals trusts is continuing.
At its peak, the daily death toll hit 35 on April 7, with 172 people losing their lives in a week more than double the week before.
But this number fell to 126 on April 17 and then to 95 a week later. Figures suggest it will have fallen to below 70 by May 1. According to NHS England figures, 576 people have now died in Kent’s hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus. A third have been reported by the east Kent trust, which runs acute hospitals in Ashford, Canterbury and Margate.
WORST-HIT AREAS
More people from Medway have died from Covid-19 than any other area of Kent - but a neighbouring borough has the county’s highest death rate. At least 113 residents of the Towns lost their lives to the virus before April 24 - more than a third higher than the next worst-affected.
But the numbers are unsurprising given almost 300,000 people live there, with five other
CARE HOMES
More than one in five deaths from Covid-19 in Kent occurs in a care home.
Latest figures reveal 164 people died from coronavirus up to April 24 while living in such facilities across the county. Most have been recorded in Thanet, with the 25 people dying in care homes accounting for a third of those who have died from Covid-19 in the district.
There is a stark difference across Kent in the proportion of
POSITIVE CASES
On March 2 the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Kent, with almost 5,000 people in the county testing positive since.
But figures released by Public Health England (PHE) suggest the peak of cases has now passed.
At the start of last month the numbers testing positive each day steadily crept up to 207 on April 17 - the highest recorded.
But in the week that followed, the average daily total fell to areas of Kent actually having more deaths per percentage of their population. Worst-hit is Dartford, which saw the deaths of 69 residents in the same period - a rate of 62.9 per 100,000 people.
The lowest number of deaths was recorded in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge and Malling, which both lost 29 residents. The latter also has the lowest death rate, with 22.2 deaths per 100,000 people. coronavirus deaths occurring in care homes.
They account for less than 10% of deaths in both Folkestone and Hythe, and Gravesham, but in Tunbridge Wells this figure rises to 41%. While care home deaths in Kent continue to rise, the rate at which they are could be falling in line with those in hospitals.
In the week up to April 24, there were 48 registered deaths in care homes - down from 66 the previous week. 143, before dropping again to 114 and then to 36 by May 1. A total of 4,126 people have now tested positive for Covid-19 in the county - 646 of them in Medway.
While the first confirmed case was that of a worker at NHS offices in Maidstone, PHE figures report someone in Kent tested positive on January 31. Further positive cases are recorded by the authority on February 3 and February 27, but a spokesman told this paper these were data entry errors.