Areas in region where one in 50 now have Covid
OMICRON VARIANT SURGING ACROSS EAST YORKSHIRE
ONE in 50 people now have Covid in two areas of East Yorkshire as cases continue to soar.
Sutton South is now the worst area in the region with a staggering weekly rate of 1,847.8 cases per 100,000 of the population. There have been 59 new cases in the week up to December 28 with 127 in total.
Brough is not far behind with a weekly rate of 1,813.2 with 148 new cases in the week to December 28 and 246 in total.
That means both areas have a rate equivalent to almost one in 50 people with the virus.
The two areas have surpassed Kingswood, which was the worst on Saturday.
The weekly rate there has still increased to 1,791.6 though, with 106 new cases and 274 in total.
The Covid rate in Walkington, Bishop Burton and Woodmansey also remains very high with a weekly rate of 1,611.6 with 56 new cases and 144 in total.
Covid is spreading massively across Hull and the East Riding with hundreds of new case being reported.
Numbers are so high across the UK, a new black colour has been added to a Public Health England (PHE) map which charts the weekly rate.
Until recently, a dark brown represented the worst rates of more than 800 cases per 100,000 of the population, but now black has been added for rates above 1,600.
The highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid is responsible for the high numbers and is now the dominant variant in East Yorkshire.
Data from the Wellcome Sanger Institute shows a huge rise in the percentage of new Covid cases being Omicron as opposed to Delta.
In the latest figures, up to Christmas, 66.1 per cent of cases in Hull are now the Omicron strain while in the East Riding it stands at 61.8 per cent.
Just two weeks before, 2.5 per cent of cases in Hull were Omicron and in the East Riding it was just 1.6 per cent.
The institute’s map estimates there are 1,316 Omicron cases compared with just 534 now of Delta.
In the East Riding there are 1,715 estimated cases of Omicron and just 779 of Delta.
During the pandemic, PHE has produced the map, which displays data showing the rates of coronavirus infection in different areas.
It has opened up a glimpse into the peaks and troughs of infection rates across East Yorkshire.
The map is colour-coded from white, where the virus is being suppressed, through to green where cases are low and then through gradually darker shades of blue as the numbers increase, then to a claret colour and then a dark brown. Black has also now been added for areas with a weekly rate above 1,600.
The map provides the seven-day rolling rates calculated by dividing the seven day count by the area population and multiplying by 100,000.
The overall average weekly Covid rate in Hull currently stands at 1,094.4 with 1,287 new cases and a total of 2,836.
In the East Riding the Covid rate is 1,084.5 with 1,598 new cases and 3,722 in total. But both areas remain below the England average which stands at 1,257.5.
Latest figures show there were 70 patients with Covid-19 in Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital on Thursday. Of those, three were in intensive care.
Overall, 993 patients have died at the trust’s two hospitals since March last year after testing positive for the virus.