An estimated one in every 22 people in Bristol and the surrounding area have Covid-19 right now, according to the latest figures from health chiefs in the city. That equates to more than 21,000 people in Bristol alone who have caught the virus this week, with thousands more in North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
The latest figures are estimates from the Public Health chiefs at Bristol City Council, because mass testing of the population has ended. And there are currently 132 Covid-19 patients occupying hospital beds in the city - but the good news is that only three of them, as of Tuesday this week, were in intensive care with the virus.
The number of people in hospital with Covid was almost 200 in late March and early April this year, but dropped to around 20 by the early summer, before rising this month back up to more than 160 as a new wave of Covid-19 swept through the country. In the past couple of weeks, the number of people in hospital with the virus has declined slightly, but is still high, health chiefs said.
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According to the health authorities, eight people have died with Covid-19 in Bristol in the last four weeks - to give context, that’s only three per cent of the total of more than 260 people who died in Bristol during July. The estimated infection rate is slightly higher in the rest of the south west - at one in 17 people, but slightly lower in South Gloucestershire, at one in 25 people.
“Following a sharp increase, Covid-19 infections remain very high,” said a spokesperson for Bristol City Council, who urged people to get their vaccines if they haven’t already. This is most likely being driven by the effects of Covid-19 restrictions ending and greater social mixing, combined with the spread of the BA.5 strain of the Omicron variant. The Omicron variant is highly infectious and this new strain appears to be causing some reinfections and infections in people who have never had the virus before,” she added.
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