Coronavirus cases still rising in the Anglia region as infection rate hits 661 per 100,000

There were nearly 50,000 positive tests for coronavirus in the Anglia region in the last week of 2020 with cases now increasing sharply in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The regional infection rate is now 661 cases per 100,000 people in the population - an increase from 568 during the week ending 23 December. Over the same period there were 509 cases per 100,000 across England as a whole.

The highest number of cases are still in Essex where the infection rate is now running at more than 1,000 per 100,000.

Milton Keynes is one of the areas of the region, along with most of Essex and south Hertfordshire, where primary schools and secondary schools have delayed the start of the school term and started remote lessons. Milton Keynes is one of the few areas where the weekly total of cases fell in the week to 30 December - down 6%.

The NHS also reported on Monday that a further 47 hospital patients had died with coronavirus in the Anglia region in the latest 24 hour period. During December there were 1,274 Covid deaths in hospitals in the area with 122 patients dying on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in each county of the Anglia region in the week to 30 December Credit: Data from Public Health England

There were 3,236 patents being treated for Covid-19 in NHS hospitals in the East of England on Saturday 2 January. That is more than 1,500 more patients than were in hospitals in the area at the peak of the first wave in April.

In the past seven days, an average of 300 patients a day are going into hospitals in the area to be treated for the symptoms of Covid-19.

Weekly total of coronavirus cases in each county in the Anglia region in the week to 30 December

  • Bedfordshire - 4,219 cases - up 10% compared with the previous week

  • Cambridgeshire - 3,503 cases - up 47%

  • Essex - 19,281 cases - up 5%

  • Hertfordshire - 9,007 cases - up 17%

  • Milton Keynes - 2,275 cases - down 6%

  • Norfolk - 3,758 cases - up 49%

  • Northamptonshire - 3,218 cases - up 37%

  • Rutland - 86 cases - up 32%

  • Suffolk - 2,871 cases - up 52%

Bedfordshire is the three unitary authorities of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton. Essex includes Southend and Thurrock and Cambridgeshire includes Peterborough

The number of people who have died with coronavirus in each county in the Anglia region during the pandemic Credit: Data from the NHS, the Office of National Statistics and the Care Quality Commission