Ten million Covid jabs as cases keep falling
More than a million vaccinations in South West
THE coronavirus vaccine roll-out has now seen ten million Britons given at least one dose of the jab – more than a million of them in the South West.
Both Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the milestone yesterday, with the PM paying tribute to all those who helped to make it happen, whilst warning infection rates are still ‘alarmingly high’. The NHS England data shows a total of 1,037,411 jabs have been given to people in the South West between December 8 and February 2, including 981,771 first doses and 55,640 second doses.
And figures out from the Office of National Statistics yesterday showed that our region now has the smallest proportion of residents who would be likely to test positive for Covid-19.
The South West sits at the bottom of the infection table with 8.3% of residents likely to be
Covid positive, compared with an average, nationally for England, of 15.3%.
Meanwhile, one of the heroes of the pandemic, Captain Sir Tom Moore, who died aged 100 on Tuesday, was last night remembered with a clap across the country at 6pm.
Earlier, MPs in the House of Commons observed a minute’s silence in tribute to the Second World War veteran, who raised £32 million for NHS charities.
SIX new coronavirus deaths have been reported in Devon in the latest figures from the NHS. The data, released by NHS England yesterday , recorded the deaths of three University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust patients who had been diagnosed with Covid-19.
Two of those deaths at Derriford Hospital occurred on February 2, and one on February 1. There have now been 194 Covid-related hospitals deaths in Plymouth, with 191 at Derriford Hospital and three at Livewell Southwest’s Mount Gould Hospital.
The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) saw two more deaths confirmed, with one on February 2 and one on February 1. There have now been 234 deaths at the RD&E.
North Devon District Hospital also saw one death on February 2. There have now been 76 hospital deaths in North Devon. There were no new deaths reported yesterday in Cornwall.
It also emerged yesterday that the South West has the fewest number of people testing positive for coronavirus.
The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) latest Covid-19 Infection Survey says that 15.3% of the nation would have tested positive antibodies of the virus – which equates to around one in seven people.
However, split across the regions of England, the South West sits at the bottom of the table, with 8.3% of residents likely to be Covid-positive.
The data has been obtained from blood studies from private households taken in the 28 days up to January 18.
This still represents a rise in the region compared to the previous month’s study, which showed the region’s likely infection rate was at 5%.
However, it remains the lowest in
England, with the South East next on the list at 10.2%.
London has the highest level – 21% – closely followed by the West Midlands (18.8%) and Yorkshire and The Humber (18.7%).
The ONS said: “There is substantial variation in antibody positivity between regions, from 21.0% (95% confidence interval: 19.3% to 22.8%) in London compared with 8.3% (95% confidence interval: 6.9% to 9.9%) in the South West.
“The populations in the south and east of England have positivity rates below the England national average.
“Confidence intervals are large for some regions, indicating high uncertainty in those estimates, but there is still evidence of differences in the percentage of people testing positive for antibodies between regions.”
Across other parts of the UK, around one in nine people in Wales are estimated to have been infected by mid-January, while Scotland’s figure was one in ten and in Northern Ireland it was one in 11.
The ONS survey was conducted in partnership with the University of Oxford, the University of Manchester, Public Health England and Wellcome Trust. The data does not include people in care homes, hospitals or other institutions.
Meanwhile, Plymouth has recorded its lowest coronavirus cases in one 24-hour reporting period for nearly two months. In the latest figures, released by the Government, Devon and Cornwall recorded a further 213 positive Covid-19 cases. Of that figure, Plymouth saw just 17 new cases confirmed, the lowest figure recorded since December 5.
Plymouth City Council praised the city for “staying at home and following the rules”, as the cases bring the overall total in the city to 8,264. Torbay saw a further 34 cases, bringing the area’s total confirmed positive cases to 3,608.
In the Devon County Council area, a further 56 cases were confirmed, made up of ten cases in East Devon, five in Exeter, 13 in Mid Devon, two in North Devon, three in South Hams, 17 in Teignbridge, one in Torridge and five in West Devon. The Devon local authority area has now seen a total of 18,049 cases.
The whole of Devon has now seen 29,921 cases. In Cornwall, 106 new cases were confirmed, bringing the county’s total figure to 12,670 positive cases since the pandemic began.
Three areas in Devon also have some of the lowest seven-day rolling averages for coronavirus infections.
The figures, which are based on specimens taken between January 22 and 29, show that Devon’s figures currently stand at 79.6 cases per 100,000 people.
Torridge has 36.6 cases per 100,000 people, and North Devon has 42.2 cases per 100,000 people while West Devon has 86 cases per 100,000 people.
Plymouth’s seven-day figure stands at 124 cases per 100,000 people, Torbay’s figure is 179.8 cases per 100,000 while Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has 160 cases per 100,000.