Warning to Luton over 'dramatic and worrying' increase in cases of Covid-19

Coronavirus sign up in Luton town centre reminding people to stay safe.

Public health officials in Luton have issued a tough warning over what they describe as a dramatic and worrying rise in Covid-19 cases in the town.

They are urging people to stay at home as much as possible to cut infection rates.

How coronavirus cases across the region are rising and falling

Infection rates are already at over 250 per 100,000 and look set to soon reach 300 per 100,000.

Officials say this is extremely serious and would take Luton far higher than anywhere else in the East of England with the consequence that more people will become seriously ill placing additional pressure on our health services.

Cases in the over 60s age group in Luton are now over 200 per 100,000. Throughout the pandemic, data has shown older people to be consistently at greater risk of serious complications if they are unfortunate enough to contract the disease.

We have seen deaths significantly increase over the last seven days, which will start showing in our published data in the coming weeks.

The virus is highly contagious and easily passes between people, even when there aren’t evident symptoms. It is only by minimising contact with others – most especially older family and friends - that we can protect those we love.

At the same time, it is really important to keep to the simple message of hands, face, space and self-isolate. Frequent attention to these basic rules are vital if we are to slow the spread of coronavirus in the town.

If you have symptoms, live with someone who does, or have been told by Test and Trace to self-isolate, you must stay at home.  You cannot leave the house under any circumstances except to get a test. Not only can you face a fine for doing so, but your actions put others in danger.

We are asking government for support to enable us to do more testing. When our numbers were high earlier in the summer, we were able to reduce them by getting more people tested and we are confident we will be able to do the same now if we are given more resources.