Coronavirus case rate rises again in Brighton and Hove

The number of new coronavirus cases in Brighton and Hove has risen again by 829 in the week to Wednesday 23 December.

In the previous week – to Wednesday 16 December – there were 524 new covid-19 cases confirmed.

The most recent weekly rate – of 285 new cases per 100,000 people in Brighton and Hove – compares with a national average of 401.

A week earlier the rate of new cases in Brighton and Hove was 180.1 new cases per 100,000 people. And in the week to Tuesday 1 December the rate was just 59 cases per 100,000.

Most neighbouring council areas had a higher rate, with the rate in Lewes rising from 214 to 383.5.

In Adur the rate rose from 183.5 to 377.9 and in Mid Sussex it went up from 241.7 to 342.3.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust recorded seven deaths in the past week of people who had tested positive for the virus in the previous 28 days.

The figure – down from nine in the previous week – brought the hospital trust’s total to 224 since the start of the pandemic.

The trust runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, in Brighton, and the Princess Royal Hospital, in Haywards Heath.

The neighbouring East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust – which runs the Conquest Hospital, in Hastings, and Eastbourne District General Hospital – recorded 43 deaths in the past week, up from 19 the week before.

Hastings continues to have one of the highest rates of infection in the country, with 950 new covid cases in the week to Wednesday 23 December or a rate of 1,025.2

In the previous week it had 748 new cases or a rate of 807.2 per 100,000 people.

The hospital trust – Eastern Sussex Healthcare – also serves Rother, Eastbourne and Wealden where the rate of new cases came in the top 100 out of 315 council areas in England.

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, which is based at the old Brighton General Hospital, recorded its first death for a fortnight on Christmas Day, taking its toll to 24.

And Western Sussex Hospitals, the trust that runs Worthing General Hospital and St Richard’s Hospital, in Chichester, recorded six deaths, up from five a week earlier. Western’s covid-linked toll now stands at 161.