ALARMING

Virus deaths still highest in country

The deadly effects of a second coronavirus peak in the east of the county appear to be slowing despite hospital deaths remaining the highest in England. Last week it was revealed 23 people had lost their lives to Covid-19 in the space of seven days at sites run by the East Kent Hospitals Trust - accounting for one in nine deaths in the country.

Health bosses blamed a “second, late” peak of the virus at the end of May, leaving more people critically ill towards the latter part of June.

New figures released on Tuesday show the death toll for the week up to June 29 to have now been revised to 25, or 8.8% of England’s total.

It dropped to 12 deaths last week, but the total is still double that of any other area in the country.

A hospitals trust in Leicester where a local lockdown has been enforced because of a spike in cases - was one of three regions to record six deaths over the same period.

In Kent, two people died at hospitals in Dartford and Gravesham, and one in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.

There were no deaths recorded at Medway Maritime Hospital. The NHS England figures cover only people dying in hospitals, and not those who lose their lives in care homes or at home. Latest statistics for all settings - released on Tuesday - showed Covid-19 deaths across Kent fell for the 11th consecutive week up to June 26 - with two areas recording none at all. Across the week, the virus claimed the lives of 33 people, down from 40 in the seven days before.

For the first time since the pandemic began, no deaths were reported among residents of both Medway and Sevenoaks. But almost a third of those who died were from Ashford, which continues to have the most new cases in Kent. The town is home to the William Harvey Hospital, which is at the heart of a recent spike in deaths in the east of the county. But, promisingly, new cases in Ashford - and Kent as a whole - have fallen steadily since the start of last month. There were 27 positive tests in Ashford last week - less than half of the 65 recorded in the first week of June.

And across Kent the total has fallen 65% - from 384 to 134 - over the same period.

But, worryingly, pockets of east Kent continue to see the majority of new cases. Four of the county’s 13 districts - Ashford, Dover, Thanet, and Folkestone and Hythe accounted for 61% of positive tests last week.

While new cases fell in Ashford and Thanet, they remained the same in Folkestone and Hythe - at 25 - and rose from 11 to 18 in Dover.

Ashford remains the area with the most Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, with 809. A huge jump of 2,000 new cases across Kent and Medway on Friday was explained away by Kent County Council, which said Public Health England had added historic community testing data.

A spokesman for KCC said: “PHE have now added in pillar 2 (community testing) data but this is historical and dates back to March.

“It’s data we’ve already been aware of re local plans and can reassure that levels of testing across Kent have also been ramped up.”

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