THERE has been a slight rise in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in Herefordshire, but infection rates are still far below a spike earlier this month.

In the seven days to Wednesday, January 20, a UK Government heatmap showed the areas in Herefordshire with the highest number of new Covid cases.

Cases rose in 16 of Herefordshire's 23 areas compared with data from January 13.

Current coronavirus hotspots in the county, those with the highest infection rates, include:

  • Hereford Central: areas such as the city centre, parts of the College Estate and Portfields
  • Hereford South West: areas such as Hunderton and Newton Farm
  • Leominster North
  • Hereford North West: areas such as Westfields nad Bobblestock
  • Leominster South
  • Ledbury
  • Hereford South: areas such as Hinton and Saxon Gate

The infection rate – the number of cases per 100,000 people – for those areas were all above the UK average of 938.2.

More than half of Herefordshire's areas were above this national average.

The map breaks Herefordshire down into 23 sections known as middle super output areas.

These are used to try and improve the reporting of small area statistics, with an average population of around 7,200 people in England and Wales.

In total, Herefordshire reported 1,858 cases in the seven days to January 20, giving it an infection rate of 959.6 cases per 100,000 people.

That was 332 more cases than the week before when the infection rate was 788.2. A fortnight ago it was 1,393.0.

The Government website shows that cases in Herefordshire have risen by 21.8 per cent over the last week.

In individual areas, the number of new cases rose the most in Ledbury, Hereford Central and Hereford North West.

Seven–day rates are expressed per 100,000 population and are calculated by dividing the seven-day count by the area population and multiplying by 100,000. This helps when comparing rates across the county.

It comes as Covid among children and teenagers is keeping infection levels high, while many people with Omicron say they have been infected before, according to a new study.

Coronavirus infections have slowed down in England but the highest prevalence was in primary school children at 7.81 per cent between January 5 and 20 this year, while overall it was 4.41%.

It means that during this period one in 23 people in England was infected with Covid.

This is the highest figure since the beginning of Imperial College London’s React-1 study, which has been running since May 2020.

Researchers further found that most people infected during the study period, which was at the height of the Omicron wave, say they have previously had Covid.

Two thirds of 3,500 people who tested positive for coronavirus between January 5 and 20 said they had had the virus before, the data suggests.

Professor Paul Elliott, who leads the React study, said these cases could not be technically labelled as reinfections because it was possible a person had tested positive twice for the same infection.

The data was unable to determine at which point in the past people had had Covid.

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