WHILE no new COVID-19 deaths have been reported at Warrington Hospital for a second consecutive day – four news cases have been confirmed in the latest daily figures, with new data also showing the ‘R’ number for the North West is now above 1.
While there have been no new deaths a total of 124 COVID-19 patients have sadly died at the hospital, while at least 96 people have also sadly died in local care homes, taking the town’s death toll to at least 220.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases of Warrington residents reported at the hospital is now 780 – a rate of 372.2 per 100,000 population.
As of yesterday (Thursday June 4, last week’s figures in brackets) the hospital had tested 5,795 (5,110) inpatients/community of which 1,089 (1,050) have tested positive. Not all are Warrington residents.
They were caring for 46 (48) patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 of whom 3 (5) were in ICU. They have discharged 320 (292) patients and sadly 124 (118) have died.
Across the UK the Daily number of COVID-19 associated UK deaths was 357 taking the total number of deaths to 40,261.
The daily number of lab-confirmed UK cases was 1,650 taking the total number to 283,311.
The UK has now become only the second country to report more than 40,000 coronavirus deaths, according to the latest government figures.
During the daily government briefing Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it had been “a time of sorrow for so many people”.
Only the US, with more than 108,000, has recorded more deaths so far.
Meanwhile new Data from Public Health England and Cambridge University scientists has revealed every part of the country is now hovering at or just below the crucial 1 value – all accept the North West, which has the highest figure of 1.01, meaning it now has the highest rate of Covid-19 transmission in the country.
Scientists from Public Health England and Cambridge University have been tracking how the virus spreads – a number known as the ‘R’ value – throughout the pandemic, the government’s crucial measure of whether the disease is under control.
It shows the North West now running above that at 1.01, up from 0.73 a few weeks ago when the data was last released.
While Mr Hancock said local lockdowns could be introduced if there were flare-ups in the number of infections in certain areas he told the Downing Street briefing that the government’s scientific advisory group (SAGE) still said the R number was below one across the country.
“You’re right that the R is closer to one in the South West and in the North West, the advice from SAGE is that R is below one in all regions,” he said.
“However, we want to increasingly have an approach in tackling local lockdowns where we spot a flare-up.
“We’ve been doing this over the last few weeks, for instance there was a flare-up in Weston-super-Mare which we successfully got under control.”
If the R value is one, then it means each infected person will on average pass coronavirus on to one other.
If it is above one, it means the number of COVID-19 cases will increase exponentially.
However, if it is below one, the disease will eventually peter out as not enough new people are being infected to sustain the outbreak.
