Official rates of Covid-19 continue to fall in every area of the North East, but with thousands fewer people getting tested it's hard to have a firm idea of how the wave of Omicron caused by the BA.2 subvariant is continuing.
The UK-wide case rate has fallen to 487.9 cases per 100,000 people over seven days - based on data from April 6. This is around half what it was a week earlier, but the Government's official data shows just 533,515 tests were reported on that day. That's just under 200,000 fewer than on March 30.
However, the ZOE study of Covid-19 symptoms and the ONS survey both last week suggested that the virus' prevalence remained similar to a week earlier. On Friday, the ONS said around one in 13 people had had the virus in the past week.
Read more: Hundreds of people with Covid have been hospitalised in the North East last week
Hospitalisations remain high too - there were still 88 Covid-19 positive patients in Newcastle 's hospitals, 158 in South Tyneside and Sunderland, 119 in County Durham and Darlington, 99 at the QE in Gateshead, and 11 in Northumbria Healthcare's hospitals. These figures, as of April 5, remain stable, though in South Tyneside and Sunderland and Gateshead have actually risen slightly in the most recent data.
This comes after the Government yesterday rejected a call from senior NHS figures to rethink its Living With Covid strategy. Industry body the NHS Confederation urged ministers to reinvigorate its public information campaign on Covid-19, including a renewed focus on mask wearing and limiting indoor mixing.
It said very high rates of Covid-19 infections were having a "major impact" on the health service, which is facing pressures as they would in a "bad winter" well into spring. But the Government rejected the call and said there was "no change" to the Living With Covid plan. A No 10 spokesperson said: "Thanks to a combination of vaccination and treatment and our better understanding of the virus we are now able to manage it as we do with other respiratory infections, so that remains the case with our approach. But obviously we continue to monitor any changes in the behaviour of the virus."
Across the North East, the rate of cases remains higher than for the UK as a whole - though it did fall 32.8% to 530.7 per 100,000 over seven days. That reflects 14,227 cases. There were 21,173 reported a week earlier, and figures for the number of tests reported show that on April 6 there were 21,722 tests reported, around 10,000 less than the 31,337 from March 30.
There are now just two local areas - Belmont & Carrville in County Durham and Newbiggin in Northumberland - where the reported case rate is more than 1,000 per 100,000 people. Rates have fallen dramatically in almost every area of the North East over the past week.
In County Durham there were 2,926 cases reported in the week to April 6 for a case rate of 548.8. That's 28.9% down on a week earlier. In Gateshead , the rate is 573.4 - down 28.7% and reflective of 1,158 new cases - while in Newcastle cases fell again too. There were 1,395 over the seven days to April 6 and the case rate was 454.7 -down 38.5%.
In North Tyneside , the case rate is down 35% to 655.9 - that's after 1,370 cases over the week. A week earlier the case rate had been over 1,000. In Northumberland the case rate is 595.4 after a 36% drop - there were 1,928 positive cases reported.
In South Tyneside , just 648 new cases were reported. That's a case rate down to 428.8 per 100,000 people - 42% below where it was a week earlier. Sunderland has seen a similar picture - after 1,545 cases and a rate down 32.5% to 556.1.
These are the ten areas with the highest reported Covid-19 rates:
Belmont & Carrville - 1,103.6 cases per 100,000 people, 82 new cases
Newbiggin - 1,009.1 cases per 100,000, 61 new cases
Shiremoor North & South Wellfield - 884.3 cases per 100,000, 68 new cases
Ashington West - 839.9 cases per 100,000, 62 new cases
Forest Hall & West Moor - 837 cases per 100,000, 53 new cases
Tynemouth Priory - 812.5 cases per 100,000, 51 new cases
Stanley West & Annfield Plain - 810 cases per 100,000, 64 new cases
Holystone & Benton - 808.2 cases per 100,000, 76 new cases
Pallion North - 803.4 cases per 100,000, 56 new cases
Swalwell - 799.8 cases per 100,000, 58 new cases
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