Patients being hospitalised with Covid have more than quadrupled in just over a month in Greater Manchester. The figures have skyrocketed by four times since June 1, when they stood at 131 hospitalisations for that week.
The numbers now stand at 561 patients hospitalised with coronavirus in the week leading up to July 3, the latest data published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows.
The rise comes after Greater Manchester health chiefs warned that the next ‘wave’ of the virus had started. Senior health sources also told the Manchester Evening News that while hospitalisation figures can provide a steer on how prevalent the virus is in our communities right now, infection rates are likely a significant underreporting of the scale of infections being contracted.
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In the week ending on July 3, a total of 561 patients were admitted to Greater Manchester NHS hospitals with Covid. That is 91 more than the week before, a rise of 19 per cent.
On July 5, there were 13 Mechanical Ventilation beds occupied by Covid patients in Greater Manchester NHS hospitals - two more than a week earlier.
In the absence of free mass testing, doctors and public health officials tell the M.E.N. that infection rates are likely being heavily underreported. Fewer people are likely to report their results as tests now come at a cost, and there are no rules in place to make the reporting mandatory.
Hospitalisation figures show the number of serious cases, where people are unwell enough to warrant inpatient treatment. However, there is a time lag between when they are first positive for Covid and when they are admitted to hospital, meaning the measurement is not always a contemporaneous way of finding out how many people have coronavirus in the community.
But despite the diminishing number of tests being carried out and results reported, the infection rates across Greater Manchester are growing. Trafford now has the highest coronavirus infection rate in Greater Manchester.
Coronavirus infection rates have gone up in all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester. Trafford continues to have the highest infection rate in Greater Manchester.
The borough recorded a rate of 254.2 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending July 2, according to the latest data from the UKHSA. The lowest infection rate is in Oldham, where the rate is 172.5 cases per 100,000 people.
In Greater Manchester as a whole, the infection rate is now 215.7 cases per 100,000 population. The infection rate in the region is lower than the national average, which is 254.7 cases per 100,000 people.
A total of 6,116 people tested positive for coronavirus across Greater Manchester in the week which ended on July 2. The Greater Manchester weekly total has increased by 1270 cases compared to the previous week, which means the infection rate was up 26 per cent in the last week. The infection rate is lower than the national average in all ten local authorities in Greater Manchester.
In the week ending July 2, a total of 23 people died within 28 days of a positive Covid test across Greater Manchester, which is four fewer than the week before.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 1,015,310 confirmed coronavirus cases in Greater Manchester. There have been a total of 9,454 deaths.
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