Covid-19 Preston
Latest Report
November 2021
The charts below are from March 2020 until 13th November 2021
Positive cases in Preston.
To 13th November 2021 Preston had 26,000 total cases and is currently running at around 70 a day.
Patients in hospital in Preston.
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, Preston and Chorley sites.
March 2020 to 13th November 2021
At the 13th November around 50 people were in hospital and 2 in ventilators. This has remained fairly stable for a few weeks..
May 2021
UK Inside Hospitality opens on 17th May
Preston Covid Data
In the week ending 15th May Preston had 19th highest case rate in England with 40.5 cases per hundred thousand or 58 cases according to Government figures.
17th April - 29.3
24th April - 30.0
1st May - 47.5
8th May - 32.1
15th May - 40.5
22nd May - 44.7
Compare that to Bolton 384.6. Blackburn 187, Burnley 58, Blackpool 22.2 for the week ending 22nd May.
Bolton and Blackburn topping England's chart for the most cases at the 15th May. Bolton's cases doubling every week since mid April.
Preston and Chorley hospital at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Admissions: 3 patients in the 7 days up to 15th May.
Patients in hospital: 1 at 18th May.
Patients on ventilators: 0 at 18th May, as it has been since 5th May.
Overview
As expected cases are rising after opening up on the 17th May. There is expectation that the vaccine programme will prevent this converting into hospital admissions and deaths.
On Saturday 22nd May the government announced trials information giving optimism that the vaccines work with the new Indian Variant.
The UK has 4.5m cases, 128k deaths. Other country deaths are: Italy 125k, France 107k, Germany 88k, Spain 79k.
India's massive population has suffered over 26 million reported cases and 300,000 reported deaths. Some have expressed concern that many areas don't have adequate testing so this may be lower than reality. This has also resulted in India stopping export of the vaccine leaving some countries like Bangladesh seeking alternative sources.
In the World there are 165m cases and 3.5 million deaths. Deaths: 1.6m in the Americas, 1.1m in Europe. 370k in South East Asia.
Historic Reports
Spring 2020
The Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 was a disaster the like of which hasn't been since World War 2. This was a worldwide threat but Europe and the Americas struggled the most. Asia was more prepared having experienced the SARS epidemic in 2003 and China implemented a very strong lockdown..
This corona virus illness particularly threatened the lives of those over 60 causing capacity issues in hospitals that prevented routine work being done.
To maintain hospital capacity and reduce the number of deaths the government closed non-essential businesses and schools in March 2020 which threatened the livelihoods of millions. To ease this the government made a furlough payment to those unable to work and businesses were allowed to defer payments and obtained grants. The closures also included restrictions on meeting others and travelling along with isolation for those with symptoms.
By the end of summer some 40,000 people had died of Covid-19 in the UK and 104 in Preston out of 1120 cases, 56 in South Ribble out of 490 cases. At this time testing was not as extensive as later in the year so the number of cases could be understated.
Summer and Autumn 2020
In summer the closure was eased when numbers went down. Cases began to slowly climb again in Autumn 2020 leading to the development of a number of tiered restrictions depending on how bad an area was.
The North West of England was particularly badly hit at this time with Greater Manchester and East Lancashire having especially high numbers of cases. This spread to Preston which had high numbers in November when the government called another but less severe English lockdown.
Easing the lockdown in early December it became apparent that London and the South East had an enormous rate of increase which was put down to a new strain with faster transmission. A new higher Tier 4 was introduced and rolled out just before Christmas. The planned easing of restrictions for Christmas was reduced to just Christmas Day.
In the period after Christmas the South of England was very badly hit and numbers began increasing all over the UK. School and University re-opening after Christmas was put back except for Primary schools.
In early December the UK approved the use of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine and on the 8th December the first person was inoculated. Very old, very vulnerable and frontline health and care workers were given top priority. At the end of December the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was approved and the first Oxford inoculation happened to a dialysis patient at Oxford on the 4th January 2021.
By 2020 year end the totals to date were:
Preston cases 8854, 231 deaths.
South Ribble cases 4695, 135 deaths.
Reference: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Lancashire moves to Tier 4 at 00.01am Thursday 31st December 2020
Tier 4 isn't as restricting as the Spring 2020 lock down and people have found ways to lessen the impact, such as Click and Collect and cafe take aways.
2021 Vaccination
In early January 3 vaccines have been approved in the UK:
BioNTech/Pfizer
Oxford/AstraZeneca
Moderna
Stocks of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are high, the Moderna vaccine will begin delivery in spring. The Pfizer vaccine needs storage at -70C which limits the locations where it can be given. Major hospitals began the programme but these are spreading to Primary Care Centres and Community Centres. Large hubs are being set up in cities. Pharmacies will begin to vaccinate soon.
The UK adopts a one jab approach with the 2nd jab delayed to 12 weeks later. No other country is following this lead although the UK scientists appear convincing that protection will be maintained.
4th January England Locks Down - Stay At Home
The Prime Minister stepped up English restrictions in the face of a new 'Kent' variant Coronavirus.
'With most of the country already under extreme measures, it is clear that we need to do more, together, to bring this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out.
In England, we must therefore go into a national lockdown which is tough enough to contain this variant.
That means the Government is once again instructing you to stay at home.
You may only leave home for limited reasons permitted in law, such as to shop for essentials, to work if you absolutely cannot work from home, to exercise, to seek medical assistance such as getting a Covid test, or to escape domestic abuse.'
The full details on what you can and can’t do will be available at gov.uk/coronavirus.
22nd February 2021 The Government announces a 4 step road map out of lockdown for England.
All subject to the situation at the time containing the following roughly*:
Step 1, 8th March schools re-open. 28th March travel restrictions end.
Step 2, not before 12th April shops re-open and hospitality outdoors opens.
Step 3, not before 17th May, social meeting to be increased.
Step 4, not before 21st June, most places back to the 'new normal'.
*check the details on the Government Website click here
26th February 2021 Vaccination Roll Out for 30 to 60 yr olds announced. Including those with Body Mass Index over 30, BAME and deprived.
People vaccinated up to and including 2 March 2021, First dose: 20,703,615, Second dose: 895,412.
November 2021 UK data:
People vaccinated up to and including 13th November 2021
First dose: 55million, Second dose: 46.9million, Booster: 12.6million
Preston Area Covid-19 Vaccine Centres 14th January 2021
Location of Vaccine Centres:
Preston Hospital
Issa Medical Centre, St Gregory Road, Preston
Geoffrey Street Health Centre, Geoffrey Street, Preston
Penwortham Cricket Club,
Jubilee House, Leyland,
Ryan Medical Centre, Bamber Bridge,
Clayton Brook Clinic,
Buckshaw Village Surgery,
Chorley Hospital, Chorley.
Garstang Medical Practice,
Lytham Primary Care Centre
Local COVID alert level: Tier 4, Stay Home
26th February 2021 Map and data of the area from the government website.
Preston is the 9th highest in England for Covid-19 cases according to a measure, taking an average over 7 days per 100,000 to 26th February 2021. There were 178.9 cases per 100,000 population (or 268 cases in total) with a decline of 22% since the previous 7 day period.
Other places in the North West region in the top 80 in England are: 15th Bolton, 18th Bury, 21st St Helens, 23rd Hyndburn, 26th Rochdale, 30th Blackburn with Darwen, 41st South Ribble, 46th Wigan, 52nd Manchester, 53rd Salford, 75th Liverpool. 80th Fylde. Note that different data sets have slightly different standings. This is Government data presented by data scraper '@UKCovid-19' on Twitter.
On 1st March it was reported that Brookfield and Holme Slack were 19th highest MSOA (Middle-Layer Super Output Area) in England with 40 new positive cases, making 393 per 100,000 between 18th and 24th February. In the week ending 17th February Broughton and Wychnor were 23rd MSOA.
To December 26th Preston had 294 cases which was 51 down on the previous week. There was a rolling average of 205. South Ribble 188 cases. The very latest information shows an uptick in most areas with a new strain increasing rapidly in the South of England.
The map below shows an improvement in the region from the map beneath it. The new strain has caused unprecedented numbers of UK cases reaching over 55,000 a day, requiring great caution.
Lancashire moved to Tier 3 at 00.01am Saturday 17th October 2020.
Week 9th Oct to 15th Oct 372 in Preston, cases per 100k of population which is 532 cases this week, +56 on the week before. 3666 cases in total.
In South Ribble 310/100k, 343 this week, +78 since last week, 1628 in total.
Covid-19 Cases Map 14th October 2020
Preston lagged East Lancashire and Manchester in the second wave, Autumn 2020, but now has a significant level of cases. Currently classed as High Risk, Tier 2 at risk of Tier 3.
BBC News report from Preston 14th October 2020: