well the number of coronavirus cases in
england has
doubled in a week with the northeast
north west and yorkshire and the humber
the worst affected areas according to
the latest data
the office for national statistics
estimates that one in 240 people in
england
had the virus in the last week of
september with more than 17 000 people
catching it every day our health editor
hugh pim
has been examining the figures
more testing part of the drive to reign
in the spread of coronavirus
here at nottingham university it's
helping students get a quick result
if they have symptoms a sharp increase
in infections in some areas
is the reason why the government at
westminster is set to announce new
restrictions next week one survey
involving random testing of people in
the community
showed that in a week in the middle of
september there were over 116
000 people infected in england by the
following week that had nearly
doubled to 224 000
meaning one in 240 of the population had
the virus
in wales the figure in the middle of
september was about six and a half
thousand by the next week it had come
down a bit
with the proportion 1 in 500 infected in
the population
but how well is testing and contact
tracing in england functioning
there are fewer people getting results
back in 24 hours
and fewer of their close contacts being
reached there are reports the system
isn't working efficiently
these kent university students are
isolating after three tested positive
that's what they told the test and trace
system but they're frustrated to be
getting repeated and unnecessary calls
six seven times a day i get a phone call
being like oh
we know you know someone who's tested
positive um
make sure you're isolating and then it's
just the same call the same
phone call every single day like
multiple times a day
none of them seem to be in contact with
one another like telling each other that
like
it doesn't seem to be a system but in
place to tell them that they've already
got in contact with us or are that we've
been tested positive because sometimes
they can't we don't know that we've
tested positive already
there's mounting concern over rising
infections in the northwest
and some of these resulting in people
getting seriously ill
with hospitals coming under more
pressure daily hospital admissions with
kovid 19 in the northwest of england
were fairly low and stable until the
start of september
then they started rising steadily with
sharper increases in the most
recent few days so what's happening here
well this line shows the number of cases
per 100
000 amongst the over 60s and that's been
rising
at the same rate we're obviously
concerned as i think everybody
is around the country with the
increasing numbers
that we are seeing in terms of that
impact on the hospital
we are busy but we have plans in place
to cope at the western general hospital
in edinburgh some patients thought to be
fewer than five
have died in a coronavirus outbreak in a
cancer ward
six others have tested positive it's now
been closed to new admissions and
discharges
another example of the potentially
deadly impact of the virus
and hugh is with me so what have we
learned today about how
quickly cases are going up you well jane
a major
survey regular survey a week ago was
suggesting that the rate of growth of
the virus
might just be leveling off but it's
saying something very different no
this is the office for national
statistics saying
that the virus is increasing rapidly
doubling in england
over the most recent week it covered
another survey by imperial college
london
giving a similar sort of outlook and
saying that these high infection rates
in the north of england
might possibly be replicated soon across
the whole country now
the thing about these surveys is that
they cover a section of the population
who
don't have symptoms and who haven't come
forward for tests
not just those who want to go and get
tested so
that is very important so what does it
all this mean for the next few weeks
well it might suggest that restrictions
introduced a few weeks back haven't had
the desired effect
which is why the government as we've
been hearing is planning more
for england but the problem is hospital
admissions which is we've seen arriving
rising rapidly in some areas they relate
to cases
going back 10 days or more so anything
introduced next week will take a while
to take effect
people who've already got the virus may
will become
sick a certain number of them and that
will push admissions up even further
and that is what the nhs is concerned
about
hugh thank you pupim