More than 500 positive cases at unis
Covid-19 round-up
DOSES’ MAY BE INFLATING THE NUMBERS
MORE than 500 coronavirus cases have been recorded so far by universities in Leicester and Leicestershire.
Infections among staff and students have been recorded by officials at De Montfort University, the University of Leicester and Loughborough since tens of thousands of staff and students started to return to campuses this month for the new term.
All three institutions have put in place measures to try to stop the spread of the virus, such as customised test and trace systems, house party bans and socially distanced teaching areas, but cases are still being recorded.
So far, De Montfort University has recorded 159 infected students and 13 staff while the University of Leicester has had 152 cases among students and six employees.
The 191 cases at Loughborough University have driven the sudden spike in infection rates in Charnwood, according to public health experts.
However, Leicestershire’s director of public health, Mike Sandys, said the area may have got “double doses” because some people who live there and are registered with a GP but are studying elsewhere may have their cases pinned to their home addresses.
He said the county council was working to establish how this factor was influencing the numbers because that could influence what tier of lockdown restrictions are imposed by the government on the advice of the Joint BioSecurity Centre.
Mr Sandys said: “Charnwood has probably got double doses here.
“Clearly there are a number of cases among the student population at Loughborough University that will be fuelling the drive in numbers within Charnwood.
“You can get into importing and exporting numbers, but it’s important we understand that because it does drive a conversation with the bio-security centre where we would say, ‘Yes, look at Leicestershire’s figures where we know this many are our residents who are nowhere near Leicestershire at the moment and they are studying away and it’s not that we haven’t got a problem in Charnwood, but this will be to do with the university setting, we are aware and the university is handling that appropriately.’
“So why then would we want to lock down the rest of the population because of it?
Mr Sandys said Nottingham had avoided tier three lockdown restrictions despite having the highest infection rates in England because threequarters of cases were among the student population.
He said: “Every single university town I can think of has massively high rates, some seven times the average, and Nottingham and Exeter are examples. But for some reason Leicester city doesn’t seem to be as badly affected as other university towns.”
Universities have back-up plans to switch to online teaching only but it has also been suggested they could face a two-week pre-Christmas lockdown to allow students to return home safely over the holiday.