Midland infection rates double that in the South
INFECTION rates and Covid-19 hospital admissions in Birmingham and the West Midlands are still more than double those in London and the South.
The divide between the more affluent South and the region was illustrated in the most recent data on case rates, with every region in the Midlands and North reporting significantly higher rates of infection.
Local leaders said they remained confident the region would follow Boris Johnson’s road map out of lockdown – but a city hospitals boss fears easing restrictions with infection rates still in three figures and hundreds of hospital beds filled could trigger a new surge.
Schools reopen to all pupils next week alongside a relaxation of outdoor mingling rules to allow for people to meet one other person outside their household.
Infection rates in the West Midlands as a whole (133.8 per 100,000 people) are this week twice the rate in London (68.6 per 100,000).
The region is also struggling with high new admissions to hospital with coronavirus – with 228 admitted in a single day across the Midlands, compared to 127 in London.
Of those newly admitted on the most recent date for full data, February 21, 34 were to University Hospitals Birmingham; 17 to
Sandwell and West Birmingham hospitals.
UHB revealed there were still more than 400 coronavirus inpatients in its three main hospitals on March 1, including around 50 in intensive care.
The Department of Health’s regional representative Clive Wright said: “The current plan is we will come out of lockdown on a national basis.
“But it still remains to be seen if we have high cases in particular regions, and that’s a concern in the West Midlands, and is why we are working so hard across all our local authorities to bring transmission down.
“The case rates are not uniform across the region, with very high rates in Birmingham and Sandwell, despite all the great work going on in those local authorities, and the goodwill of communities.
“It is a pattern of how people are working in those areas, particularly in industries, in manufacturing, distribution and construction for example, so we will have to work doubly hard now to continue to bring those rates down.”
The Government has not ruled out reimposing economic and social restrictions at a local or regional level if evidence suggests they are necessary to contain or suppress a variant which escapes the vaccine.