Erewash now has country’s highest virus infection rate

EREWASH now has the highest rate of Covid infection in England, with 214 cases in the seven days to May 6.

The figures were revealed in the latest update of Covid-19 case rates for every local authority area in England, released last night.

The figures, for the seven days to May 6, are based on the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in either a lab-reported or rapid lateral flow test, by specimen date. The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Erewash’s 214 new cases is the equivalent of 185.5 cases per 100,000 people. This is up from 17.3 in the seven days to April 29. the infection rate is more than seven times higher the next most infectious place in Derbyshire – High Peak – at 24.8 cases per 100,000. Derby is at 17.9.

Bolton in Greater Manchester has the second highest rate, up from 70.2 to 133.5, with 384 new cases. Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire has the third highest, up from 50.1 to 84.8, with 127 new cases. Of the 315 local areas in England, 107 (34%) have seen a rise, 196 (62%) have seen a fall and 12 are unchanged.

Across the country, the Government said a further four people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, bringing the UK total to 127,609.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 152,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The Government said as of 9am yesterday there had been a further 2,357 lab-confirmed cases in the UK, bringing the total to 4,437,217.

Locally, the number of Covidrelated hospital deaths since the start of the pandemic is as follows:

Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust - 1,650 Derbyshire Healthcare - 2 Derbyshire Community Health Services - 37 Chesterfield Royal Hospital - 416 Government data up to May 9 shows that of the 53,328,845 jabs given in the UK so far, 35,472,295 were first doses – a rise of 100,626 on the previous day. Some 17,856,550 were second doses, an increase of 187,171.