Devon's covid cases double

Exeter and Torbay stay the same

The number of new coronavirus cases confirmed across Devon and Cornwall in the previous seven days has nearly doubled.

A total of 1,615 new cases were confirmed across the two counties – the highest since the week ending November 13 – in a week that saw the Devon County Council area reach 10,000 confirmed cases and the two counties combined 20,000.

Cases have risen in every single region of Devon and Cornwall – with more than doublings occurring in North Devon, Teignbridge, Torridge, West Devon, Cornwall and the South Hams – although the latter two are still in bottom five authorities for infections rates.

Government statistics show that 1,615 new cases have been confirmed across the region in the past seven days in both pillar 1 data from tests carried out by the NHS and pillar 2 data from commercial partners, compared to 869 new cases confirmed last week.

Of the 1,615 new cases confirmed since December 11, a total of 343 were in Cornwall, 238 in East Devon, 132 in Exeter, 100 in Mid Devon, 176 in North Devon, 216 in Plymouth, 60 in the South Hams, 123 in Teignbridge, 73 in Torbay, 66 in Torridge and 95 in West Devon.

By specimen date, cases are rising everywhere except Exeter and Torbay – although the rise in Plymouth is very shallow.

Positivity rates in Cornwall are 1.4 per cent, 5.1 in East Devon, 4.2 in Exeter, 3.5 in Mid Devon, 4.7 in North Devon, 2.3 in Plymouth, 1.7 in the South Hams, 2.5 in Teignbridge, 1.2 in Torbay (and falling, the only region to do so), 2.4 in Torridge, and 3.4 in West Devon.

As of Wednesday morning, there were 249 patients in hospital across Devon and Cornwall following a positive Covid-19 test, with 114 at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, 35 at the Nightingale Exeter, 30 in North Devon, 29 at Royal Cornwall Trust Hospitals, 20 at Derriford Hospital, 12 at Torbay Hospital, and 9 at Cornish Partnership Trust Hospitals.

There were seven patients in Mechanical Ventilation beds, with five at the RD&E and two at Derriford Hospital.

The figures show the number of patients in hospital following a positive COVID-19 test who are currently occupying a bed.

But not every patient would necessarily have been admitted to hospital due to COVID-19, with several patients either contracting the virus inside the hospital or being admitted for unrelated reasons but subsequently testing positive asymptotically when given routine tests.

In the last week, 28 deaths were recorded within hospitals in Devon and Cornwall in 28 days of a positive Covid-19 death, with 20 in Exeter, six in North Devon, one in Plymouth, and one in Cornwall. No deaths in the last seven days have occurred in Torbay.

And while NHS 111 data for Cornwall is unchanged in the last week, Devon’s has fallen by 25 per cent, but the R-Rate for the South West has risen slightly from 0.8-1.0 to 0.9-1.2