The highest number of weekly coronavirus cases confirmed over a seven-day period across Devon and Cornwall has been recorded – but most areas are now seeing new cases start to fall.
More than 2,300 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the last seven days across the two counties, taking the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 15,982.
However, not all of the cases recorded in the past week were actually contracted during it, and some of the actual specimen dates go back a number of weeks.
It means that while the seven-day figures have risen everywhere except for Torbay and West Devon, but when looking at cases by specimen date rather than reported date only North Devon is seeing a rise.
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Government statistics show that 2,367 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 2,068 new cases confirmed last week.
Of the 2,367 new cases confirmed since November 13, 478 were in Cornwall, 244 in East Devon, 220 in Exeter, 79 in Mid Devon, 170 in North Devon, 597 in Plymouth, 89 in the South Hams, 108 in Teignbridge, 263 in Torbay, 66 in Torridge and 53 in West Devon.
However, out of this total only 1,539 had a specimen date of between November 13 and 19, with 320 in Cornwall, 172 in East Devon, 153 in Exeter, 61 in Mid Devon, 103 in North Devon, 349 in Plymouth, 51 in South Hams, 65 in Teignbridge, 182 in Torbay, 50 in Torridge and 33 in West Devon.
Despite more new cases being confirmed this week, by specimen date cases have fallen overall, and graphs by specimen date show cases are only rising in North Devon.
In Cornwall, Exeter, Mid Devon, South Hams and Teignbridge, cases are fairly flat, while they are currently decreasing in East Devon, Plymouth, Torridge, Torbay and West Devon.
NHS England figures show that as of Tuesday morning, there were 265 patients across Devon and Cornwall, in hospital after a positive Covid-19 test.
In Cornwall, four were in Cornish Partnership Trust hospitals and six at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, with none in mechanical ventilation beds - although there were 65 patients needing this treatment across the south west as a whole, where there are 942 people in hospital - up from 759 the previous week.
The figures show the amount 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 a number of patients either contracting the virus inside the hospital, or being admitted for unrelated reasons but subsequently testing positive asymptotically when given routine tests.
NHS 111 data for Cornwall has nearly halved and is at the lowest level since August 14. The R-Rate for the South West fallen to 1.0-1.3 from 1.2-1.4.
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In total Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has had 3,436 positive cases recorded since the start of the pandemic. In comparison with the rest of the local authorities, Torridge has had 308 positive cases, West Devon 347, with 542 in the South Hams, 597 in Mid Devon, 709 in North Devon, 861, in Teignbridge, 1,301 in East Devon, 1,773 in Torbay, 2,428 in Exeter, and 3,680 in Plymouth.
The total though has only risen by 1,911 for Devon and Cornwall after 204 cases were reassigned to other local authorities this week, meaning everywhere except Torbay and Plymouth on Monday saw the total number of cases fall.
It comes as Steve Brown, Devon’s director of public health has issued a new plea to residents, said: “There is cause for optimism, without doubt. The challenge to us all – my plea to you – is that we do not let our enthusiasm to return to normal actually set us further back.”
The Covid-19 cases are identified by taking specimens from people and sending these specimens to laboratories around the UK to be tested. If the test is positive, this is a referred to as a lab-confirmed case.
Confirmed positive cases are matched to ONS geographical area codes using the home postcode of the person tested.
Cases received from laboratories by 12.30am are included in the counts published that day. While there may have been new cases of coronavirus confirmed or people having tested positive, those test results either yet to reach PHE for adding to the dataset or were not received in time for the latest daily figures to be published.
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