Don’t infect grandparents, young told as cases surge

Health Secretary issues plea to protect elderly after highest daily total of new infections since May

MATT HANCOCK has appealed to young people not to “infect their grandparents” as nearly 3,000 new coronavirus cases were announced last night, the highest daily total since May.

Describing the toll of 2,988 as “concerning” the Health Secretary said the rise in cases among the young risked a spike in the population as a whole. It followed 1,175 new cases on Saturday.

Public Health England said there had been recent increases across the whole of England and that no single area accounted for the surge. However, Birmingham, which has teetered on the edge of a return to lockdown for more than two weeks, saw the largest increase in overnight cases, while most new infections were in the North.

Over the border, Scotland recorded 208 new cases yesterday, the highest daily increase for more than 17 weeks.

“The cases are predominantly among younger people, but we’ve seen in other countries across the world and in Europe, this sort of rise in the cases amongst younger people leading to a rise across the population as a whole,” said Mr Hancock.

“It’s so important that people don’t allow this illness to infect their grandparents, and to lead to the sorts of problems that we saw earlier in the year.”

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at UEA, said: “This is especially concerning for a Sunday, when reported numbers are generally lower than most other days of the week.”

He added: “Some of that increase may be because of catch-up from delayed tests over the past few days.

“Nevertheless this represents a marked increase in the seven-day rolling average of 1,812 cases a day compared with 1,244 a week ago and 1,040 the week before that.

“Fortunately, the daily reported numbers of deaths due to Covid-19 remain very low with a seven-day rolling average of just seven deaths a day. However, with the new approach to recording deaths it is difficult to be confident that there are timely statistics. It with be another two or even more weeks before we can really expect to see any impact on mortality figures.”

The spike came as a leaked PHE analysis of cases in the North revealed that officials were questioning the point of local lockdowns.

Analysis of Covid levels in parts of the North found that even the national lockdown had failed to bring transmission down to near zero, as it had in most of the country.

Leaked to the Observer, the analysis pointed to a tension between epidemiologists at PHE and government policy, which is to impose local lockdowns in response to rising numbers. Leeds was added to an official watch list on Friday, with the city council pointing to young people attending house parties as a significant cause.

The latest figures suggest that the five worst-hit areas are in the North West. Bolton had 98.1 cases per 100,000 people over the last seven days, with 63.2 in Bradford, 56.8 in Blackburn and Darwen, 53.6 in Oldham and 46.7 in Salford.

This compared with 5.2 cases per 100,000 people across Kent, 3.2 in Southampton and 5.9 in Milton Keynes.

The document states the infection rates are strongly linked to deprivation, poor housing and large communities with people of mixed ethnicity.

“The overall analysis suggests Bolton, Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale never really left the epidemic phase,” the document states. It adds: “Each region has experienced its own epidemic journey, with the North peaking later and the North West, Yorkshire and Humber and the East Midlands failing to return to a near zero Covid status even during lockdown.”