The number of new coronavirus cases in Brighton and Hove has topped 1,000 in a week for the first time.
The news emerged as the government announced a staggered return to school in the new year, with a fortnight’s delay for most secondary school students.
Those taking exams are due to go back in the week starting Monday 11 January, when the extended parliamentary recess will end.
And the rest are expected to return a week later, allowing time to set up mass testing of pupils.
In Brighton and Hove, 1,021 new cases of covid-19 were confirmed in the week to Boxing Day (Saturday 26 December), according to Public Health England, up from 673 in the previous week.
This equates to a rate of 351 cases per 100,000 people, up from 231.4 in the seven days to Saturday 19 December.
And the government’s coronavirus dashboard said today (Wednesday 30 December) that 221 people tested positive for the coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
This would mean 1,149 new cases over the past week – a 54 per cent rise as the new mutant strain of covid-19 continues to spread.
Nationally, the government said that 50,023 new cases had been confirmed today, on top of 53,135 cases yesterday.
And 981 deaths had been reported in the past 24 hours of people who had tested positive for the virus in the past 28 days.
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust recorded eight deaths in the past week of patients who have had covid – down from 10 in the previous week – taking the hospital trust’s total to 228 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 44 deaths in the past week, up from 34 the week before.
Hastings is still in the top 20 council areas in the country with the highest rates of infection but the number of new cases has fallen slightly.
In the week to Boxing Day there were 880 new cases – a rate of 949.7 per 100,000 people – down from 904 cases the week before – a rate of 975.6.
Eastern Sussex Healthcare also serves Rother, Eastbourne and Wealden where new case rates remain – as in Brighton and Hove – in the top half of the 315 council areas in England.
All this means that we are likely to find that the virus and its consequences continue throughout 2021. It will be interesting to see whether the delayed Elections elsewhere in Sussex take place. This is set to be a long winter.
8 people have died of covid in Brighton .. more have died in landslides in Norway.
Er, that is eight deaths in the past week. Multiply it, and take that smirk off your face before the disease removes it for you as your lips droop.
I suggest that you take a deep breath and hold it – and imagine what it is like to be in a hospital bed with a ventilator’s tube down your throat.
That is a bit like saying apples are better than cabbages. What is the point you are making?
Are the landslides contagious and spreading at an increasing rate?
Such an AMAZING time last night on Brighton Beach!
There were literally hundreds of people everywhere, with spontaneous beach-fires along the whole length of the beach with people drinking, singing, playing music, firing off a ton of fireworks, and welcoming in the New Year in style!
Thank you so much to all my brothers and sisters that came along, and we welcome with open arms the new ones we met last night.
It fills me with hope and energy to know, that despite the police harassment and them trying to order us to ‘GO HOME’ with loud hailers from their police vans, that there are still so many people that are prepared to resist, celebrate and stand firm for their freedom! Beautiful.
Wow you had a few beers on Brighton beach, Such bravery and resistance! Why don’t you post this again under your full name if you’re so keen to stand up and be counted?
Ann,
He goes under the name of Matt ‘Single’ on The Argus comments. This is the same post he put on there.
Stupid boy. I bet he is single…who would want him!
Thanks for letting us know in advance who is to blame for the surge in infections that will surely follow your celebration of”freedom” (to be selfish and irresponsible) on the beach. Did you know that the new virus strain (23 genetic changes) originating in SE England is super-infectious? That the NHS is on its knees? Not just understaffed to begin with, but halved by sickness and self-isolation — and exhausted since April 2019. You deserve their rage and despair. Try reading about it.