Virus cases locally top UK average for first time
THE number of new coronavirus infections in Ashbourne have risen above the national average for the first time in the pandemic – despite a steady decline in rates nationally.
The latest figures for the Ashbourne South ward show there were 34 new cases detected in a seven day period. It puts our rolling rate at 456.8, which is slightly above the national average.
In the larger, more rural Ashbourne North ward, which encompasses villages from Mappleton all the way up to Heathcote, there was another rise in cases to 30 overall, putting a rolling rate at 415.8, close to the national average.
Similar rates were seen in the Ambergate, Heage and Idridgehay ward and the Duffield, Quarndon and Kirk Langley ward - but other neighbouring areas, including Doveridge, Brailsford and Bradley’s ward and the Wirksworth ward actually saw significant decreases in the number of new cases.
And this reflects a wider picture in the Derbyshire Dales which has finally started to see a decline in new cases. Last week we reported the number of new cases had risen to 178, but this week the latest figure shows the number has now fallen to 167.
This puts the district’s rate per 100,000 population at 230.9, which is down from last week’s rate of 246.1.
However, the apparent start of a decline in the number of new cases across most areas of the UK is not reflected in the state of hospitals, which are still seeing huge numbers of new admissions.
According to the latest data, there are now more than 500 Covid-19 patients in Derby and Burton’s hospitals – more than double the number in the first wave of the pandemic last spring.
In total, there are 670 Covid-19 patients in Royal Derby Hospital, Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Queen’s Hospital in Burton, another increase on last week’s figure.
Before Christmas, this figure stood at around 300, in mid-october it was 75 and for much of the summer very few Covid patients were being cared for. Local health chiefs have welcomed the fact that while Covid inpatient numbers are soaring to double the level seen in April, the numbers in intensive care have not matched pace and sit below that seen in the first wave.
This, they say, is down to improved treatment options and understanding of the virus, with Covid patients now less likely to reach intensive care than before.
Derby and Burton’s hospital trust had peaked at 252 patients with the virus during the first wave, but it is now treating 524 Covid patients.
There are now, as of January 18, 388 Covid-19 patients at Royal Derby Hospital, more than double its previous record high in the 160s and nearly 40 more than a week ago.
Its intensive care staff are treating 19 Covid patients, below its peak in April of nearly 30.
Chesterfield Royal Hospital is currently treating, as of January 18, 146 Covid-19 patients, around double its first wave high of 75. It is, however, lower than last week when it had 158 patients with the virus.
It has 15 Covid patients in intensive care, close to its high of 17 in early April.
Queen’s Hospital in Burton is treating 136 Covid-19 patients, down from 141 last week, its second consecutive drop. It has nine patients with the virus in intensive care, close to its record of 11.
During a Derby City Council health meeting last week, Gavin Boyle, chief executive of the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB), said: “It is a really big challenge. Just to reassure people, the hospitals are responding well. We are able to discharge patients that we need to and to maintain flow.
“Increasingly now, our general and acute beds are being switched from green (non Covid) to red (Covid positive).
“The most critical factor is critical care capacity. We are accommodating a large number of patients but there is some good news here. In terms of our numbers of patients in critical care, it is similar to the level that we saw in wave one.
“There are probably two reasons for that. One is the treatments we are able to offer patients mean that when they are admitted to hospital they are less likely to require critical care treatment, so things like dexamethasone (which UHDB helped contribute to research on), and also we have increased the other treatments we can use outside of critical care like highflow oxygen and something called
CPAP, which is a way of giving patients an increased level of oxygen to help them while they are in respiratory distress.
“It is a really challenging picture and I’m rather hoping that the latest lockdown will start to feed through, but of course, there is a lag - community infection figures sort of lead the hospital and we catch up a few weeks later and people become very poorly and inevitably are admitted to us.
“It is a really difficult situation, but it is being managed. We have a bit of a ray of hope with the vaccine but now is not the time to take our foot off the pedal.
“I think it will take a number of months before there is sufficient immunity within the population so that prevalence is at a sufficiently low level that we can start to make some risk-based judgements about getting back to normal.”
I think it will take a number of months before there is sufficient immunity within the population Gavin Boyle