Almost 1,500 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Brighton and Hove over the weekend, according to figures published today (Monday 20 December).
The rate is among the highest in the south east – and the number of tests being taken locally has soared as concern has grown about the new omicron strain of the virus.
But there were no new coronavirus deaths recorded over the weekend in Brighton and Hove.
The figures also show that more than two thirds of people in Brighton and Hove have received two doses of a covid-19 vaccine.
A total of 198,763 people had received both jabs by yesterday (Sunday 19 December) – 69 per cent of those aged 12 and over.
This is below the national average, with 82 per cent of over-12s across England having had a second dose of the jab.
Today the NHS said that there were 29 patients with the virus in the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, but there were no children with covid in the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital.
Of those at the Royal Sussex, five or fewer were in intensive care or high dependency beds.
Keep up the scary headlines Frank.
With so few coronavirus patients in hospital and so few associated deaths, with so many vaccinated and so many booster-jabbed, it’s hard to understand the panic (unless the Government is trying to distract us from it serial rule-breaking during previous lockdowns etc).
Infection rates may well keep rising, but it’s already clear the consequences are not as severe as earlier strains of the virus and previous waves of the pandemic, and some credit goes, of course, to the vaccination programme.
Ministers and their advisers have created a great deal of anxiety, huge uncertainty and placed tens of thousands of jobs at risk. This is harming people’s mental health and distracting the NHS from the needs of hundreds of thousands of people with other life-threatening conditions.