With just a day before the vast majority of Covid-19 testing stops, the data makes worrying reading in the North East with cases still rising in every area.
Case rates in each North East local authority remain on the up, and there are still substantial numbers of patients in the region's hospitals with Covid-19 diagnoses. However, few patients are on ventilators, and around the UK as a whole the spike in Covid-19 cases caused by the spread of the BA.2 Omicron subvariant may have peaked - for the first time in weeks the case rate for the country as a whole fell on March 24.
But top medics around the region are still deeply concerned by the threat Omicron poses, and it's still leading to many NHS staff being forced to miss work - upping the pressure on an already-stretched health service. This comes after the Government revealed more detail about its plan to "Live with Covid" on Tuesday evening - with only a small number of groups still able to access free Covid testing from April 1.
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In County Durham , in the week to March 24 there were 4,142 Covid cases, meaning there was a case rate of 776.9 per 100,000 people. This is still somewhat lower than the national rate - 902.4 - but still an increase in cases. it was a similar story in Gateshead where the case rate for the week in question rose to 811.6 - that's due to 1,639 new cases and an increase of 48.3%.
In Newcastle the case rate was 735.9 - that's representative of 2,258 cases and a rise of 19% week-on-week. North Tyneside has the highest case rate in the area - with the figure currently topping out at 966.1. That reflects 2,018 cases, which is an increase of 29.4%. And Northumberland is the area with the next highest Covid-19 prevalence - the rate is 928.9 and there were 3,008 cases over the week. This reflects how some of the places hardest hit - including Darras Hall and Cramlington - are within the county.
In South Tyneside the rise is steepest - there was a case rate of 709.3 and were 1,072 new cases. That's up 63.4%. In Sunderland there were 2,183 new cases leading to a case rate of 785.7.
When it comes to hospitalisations, there were still hundreds of people on the North East's wards with Covid-19 as of March 22. The South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust has the most patients who've tested positive - 115 - and there are four people who required support to breathe from a ventilator. That's the most patients in hospital since February 17 at the tail-end of the initial Omicron wave.
At Newcastle's hospitals there were 89 patients in hospital with Covid with 102 in Northumbria Healthcare's care - each trust had two patients needing ventilators. In County Durham and Darlington there were 87 Covid-positive patients and one on a ventilator, and while there were only 42 patients with Covid in the QE in Gateshead - this figure had almost tripled since March 4.
These are the ten local areas around the North East with the highest Covid-19 prevalence as of March 24:
Morpeth South & West 1,504.8 cases per 100,000 101 new cases
Darras Hall, Stamfordham & Heddon - 1,490.3 cases per 100,000, 117 new cases
Low Fell West 1,467.3 cases per 100,000, 92 new cases
South Gosforth 1,371.3 cases per 100,000 131 new cases
Whitley Sands 1,358.1 cases per 100,000 82 new cases
Coxlodge & West Gosforth 1,357.5 cases per 100,000, 141 new cases
North Cramlington 1342.2 cases per 100,000, 69 new cases
Killingworth East 1,303.6 cases per 100,000, 83 new cases
Whickham 1,284.2 cases per 100,000, 90 new cases
Holystone & Benton 1,276.1 cases per 100,000 120 new cases
