The number of new coronavirus cases almost doubled in Brighton and Hove in the week from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve, according to figures published today (Monday 4 January).
A total of 1,762 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in the seven days to Thursday 31 December in Brighton and Hove, according to Public Health England.
The figure was almost double the 926 cases in the previous seven-day period, to Thursday 24 December.
It puts the rate for Brighton and Hove at 605.7 cases per 100,000 people, up from 318.3 in the week to Christmas Eve.
The rate looks likely to rise further, with 437 more cases having been confirmed today.
The lowest rates of infection are among primary school age children and highest among 35 to 54-year-olds.
Among those aged 40 to 44, the rate is almost 800 per 100,000 people.
Figures for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, and the Princess Royal Hospital, in Haywards Heath, show a rising number of daily admissions.
The number of daily admissions and the total number of patients confirmed to have covid-19 have not yet passed the levels that they reached during the first wave of the pandemic.
But more patients are now receiving help breathing from a ventilator than earlier in the year.
Seven people who had tested positive for the virus in the previous 28 days died in a BSUH hospital over the past seven days, down from 18 in the previous seven-day period.
The number of deaths in December totalled 49 and the toll since the start of the pandemic has reached 242.
What is the bed occupancy rate in the local hospitals