The deaths of nine people with Covid-19 in the Bristol area in a single day were recorded today.
Five people’s deaths were recorded in North Somerset, three in Bristol and one more in South Gloucestershire on one of the worst days for covid fatalities in the region for weeks.
Across the country, there were another 439 people’s deaths recorded with Covid in one day, and almost 100,000 people tested positive for the virus today.
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The latest Covid-19 figures for Bristol and the local area, released by the Department of Health for Tuesday, January 25, show that the falls in cases, hospitalisations and deaths that have happened over the past two weeks have definitely stopped - throwing into doubt hopes that the Omicron wave of the virus was passing quickly.
The number of people testing positive for the virus in the UK today was 94,326, and another 1,613 people were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in a single day.
In the Bristol area, the latest figures show there are more than 200 people in Bristol’s hospitals with the virus, and the gradual decline in numbers has halted with cases going back up again.
The Omicron wave appeared to have peaked in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire on January 4. On that date Bristol saw a record 1,539 new cases of the virus, while North Somerset recorded a record 574 new cases, and South Gloucestershire a record 314 a day earlier on January 3.
Ever since then, the number of new cases declined quickly, but that decline stopped on January 15.
Today, there were 675 new cases of Covid-19 in Bristol - another day of more Covid cases than the day before, ever since the decline stopped at 488 new cases on January 15.
In North Somerset, there were 194 new cases on January 15, but that has risen quickly again and today, Tuesday, there were 353.
In South Gloucestershire, the record 820 cases on January 3 fell quickly to 314 on January 15, but that decline has stopped and new cases are rising again - up to 459 on Tuesday.
Case rates
Case rates are showing a similar increase again, after the peak and decline of the Omicron wave in late December and early January.
The case rate shows the number of people with Covid-19 in a week, averaged out among every 100,000 people.
In Bristol, the case rate is up to 989 again, on the latest figures for the seven days up to January 20. It had peaked on January 4 at 1,787 but dropped to 890 on January 15.
In South Gloucestershire, the case rate is back over 1,000 for the first time in a fortnight, and South Gloucestershire now has the highest case rate in the region. It had peaked on January 4 at 1,678 cases per 100,000 people, but had almost halved in the three weeks since.
In North Somerset, the case rate is also rising towards 1,000. It had peaked at 1,469 on January 4, but fell to 854 on January 15.
Deaths
The number of people dying with Coronavirus is recorded in several different ways.
The nine deaths reported today were of people who had tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 28 days.
But not everyone in hospital with Covid-19 is there because they have Covid-19 - and in London, NHS chiefs have said the percentage of people in hospital primarily because of Covid has declined from around three-quarters to just over a half.
NHS bosses in Bristol have refused to reveal the numbers of ‘primary Covid’ cases in hospital in the city.
Follow the latest updates on this story and others like it here (Bristol)
A more accurate record of the deaths attributed to Covid-19 could be where the doctor has recorded Covid-19 on a death certificate, regardless of how long it was since a positive test. This rules out people who had Covid without any symptoms three weeks before they died for another reason, but rules in people who have died from Covid after contracting the virus more than a month ago.
The latest figures for that tally shows that in the past week, there have been six such deaths in Bristol, three in South Gloucestershire and seven in North Somerset - a total of 16 in a week in the Bristol area.
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