Covid-19 case rates continued to fall dramatically across the North East in the days leading up to the May Bank Holiday weekend.
Even areas previously badly-hit like Wallsend West saw big falls in Covid positive tests, but there remain some areas like Cramlington in Northumberland where the virus is causing a bump in reported illness. This comes as the Government releases official figures showing that the BA.2 wave of the Omicron variant caused more than 7,000 deaths in England March this year.
The new data shows that across December, January, February and March - the four months when Omicron has been the dominant Covid-19 strain - 26,751 people died within 60 days of a positive Covid-19 test or with the virus mentioned on their death certificate. At the height of the Omicron wave in January, 8,251 people died.
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Figures for deaths in April are not yet available, but Government surveillance data has suggested the figure is decreasing week-on-week. In the week ending April 15, there were 1,150 deaths with Covid-19 on someone's death certificate.
By the April 28, the confirmed case rate across the UK had fallen to just 148 per 100,000 people over a week. That figure was as high as 907.7 as recently as mid-March. The North East figure is slightly higher - a rate of 175.4 - but it has also fallen dramatically. Some of the fall can be attributed to less Covid-19 testing taking place, but even since the end of free mass testing on March 31 this has fallen sharply.
In County Durham , the case rate is now as low as 166.2. That's down almost 40% and reflects just 886 confirmed cases, less than a quarter of the total seen in the last week of March. While Gateshead also saw a dramatic drop in cases, the borough's rate remains higher at 195.1. That reflects 394 positive cases over the week to April 28 and a fall of 29.5%.
Newcastle saw 494 new cases over the week for a rate of 161.1 - that's also down 33.1% on the week before. And in North Tyneside (207.3 after 433 new cases) and Northumberland (190.8 after 618 new cases) the picture is similar - with both authority areas also seeing a case rate down by close to a third.
In South Tyneside the case rate is down to 206.4. That's a 21.8% fall and reflects 312 cases. Sunderland' s case rate is down a quarter week-on-week to 280.3. That's after 501 new cases of Covid-19 in the area.
South Hylton (28 new cases), Horden (13 new cases) and Heworth (31 new cases) all saw cases more than double over the seven days to April 28. The former is now one of only four places with a rate of more than 400 cases per 100,000 people over a week. The others are Westoe in South Tyneside (also with 28 new cases), Cramlington Town and Beaconhill (36 new cases) and Wallsend West (28 new cases).
The ten areas with the highest Covid-19 rates in the North East as of the week to April 28 were:
Westoe - 426.7 cases per 100,000, 28 new cases
South Hylton - 426.5 cases per 100,000, 28 new cases
Cramlington Town & Beaconhill - 419.7 cases per 100,000, 36 new cases
Wallsend West - 401 cases per 100,000, 28 new cases
Killingworth East - 361.2 cases per 100,000, 23 new cases
Ryton - 356.5 cases per 100,000, 30 new cases
Coundon North -355.6 cases per 100,000, 26 new cases
Blyth Newsham - 355 cases per 100,000, 31 new cases
Heworth - 339.9 cases per 100,000, 31 new cases
Shiremoor North & South Wellfield - 338.1 cases per 100,000, 26 new cases
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