David Wood blog: Swindon on Government's Coronavirus 'areas of concern' list for third week
Swindon has remained on the Government's list of local council areas seen as 'areas of concern' because of an increase in people testing positive for Covid-19.
However, whilst infections still remain high, there is no evidence of the rate of infection increasing in the past couple of weeks.
According to data from Public Health's weekly infection reports, a rate of 41.9 people in 100,000 in Swindon tested positive for the virus last week, which is lower than the 44.9 recorded in the week before.
Although this is only a slight decrease in the infection rate, it is good news.
As the local outbreak has gone on in the past few weeks extra testing has been carried out in the town which could be one reason why there still is a fairly high number of positive tests.
The local council has spent the last couple of weeks talking to residents and businesses in the SN1 and SN2 postcodes about the various precautions people should be taking to try and stop the spread of the virus as most of the cases have been in these areas.
The council is confident that this outbreak is contained within those areas rather than spreading into the Swindon as a whole.
Officials who are trying to trace people who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive and ask them to isolate for a fortnight, say that 85% of contacts in Swindon have been reached and are isolating.
That figure is 5% higher than the national average.
The ages of those who are testing positively is also evenly spread through 18-65-year-olds, which is unlike some other areas of concern elsewhere in the country where mainly younger people are testing positive.
The latest news about the infection rate suggests that chances of a local lockdown in Swindon are continuing to decrease.
But these things can change very quickly so people are being reminded to maintain social distancing, regularly wash hands and wear facemasks covering nose and mouth in enclosed spaces.
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