By Matt Jarram, Local Democracy Reporter
The Public Health director for Nottingham sent out a stark warning that ‘Covid is not over for us’ as the city starts to see an increase in cases.
Lucy Hubber, director of Public Health for Nottingham, said that while nationally cases of coronavirus have gone down, in Nottingham they have risen.
There were 979 positive cases of Covid from October 20 to October 26, which is a 12 per cent increase from the week before.
This means the rate of infection is 290.4 per 100,000 people. This is lower than the UK-wide rate per 100,000, which currently stands at 435.
She told a Nottingham City Council Outbreak and Engagement Board meeting on Monday, November 1: “The position in Nottingham has been very interesting over the last few months.
“In the summer we were very steady at about 350 cases per 100,000 people. We had a decline to mid-240/250 through September and October while everybody else went up very high.
“Nottingham has remained very steady. What we are seeing as we come out of half term, where we might have expected our case rates to decline, we are seeing an increase in case rates.
“It is in our adult age groups. Covid is definitely not over for us. If they continue to increase, we don’t want to go into the Christmas period with high rates.”
She said the case rates are not related to an outbreak but community transmission, with the sharper increases in the over-60s.
There has also been a rise in the 40-49 age range.
Rates have remained low among 18 to 22-year-olds, which includes the student population.
Cllr Sally Longford (Lab), chair of the meeting, thanked Cllr Adele Williams (Lab) for writing to the secretary of state with her concerns.
She thanked her for asking for “greater levels of control imposed on people on public transport and enclosed places”.
Cllr Neghat Khan (Lab) asked: “As parent of a child who goes to primary school, what more can we do to protect each other? It is really worrying to see more people in hospital.”
Mrs Hubber said “testing is really important” and that the tests can be provided to not only secondary school children but also primary.
This article was amended on 02.11.21 – to say Cllr Sally Longford (Lab), chair of the meeting, thanked Cllr Adele Williams (Lab) for writing to the secretary of state with her concerns – it previously said she had thanked Ms Hubber.
