How has third lockdown affected Sunderland's coronavirus case rate?

The third national lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday, January 4, and officially came into effect two days later.

On Wednesday, February 24 – seven weeks since the latest restrictions were imposed – a total of 20,766 cases had been confirmed in Sunderland, a rise of 5,470 since January 6.

The total increased by 5,004 in the seven weeks before lockdown.

But a look at the daily and weekly infection rates shows lockdown is having an impact.

There were 168 new cases on January 6, up by 46 on seven weeks previously.

The daily case count remained high throughout the month and although it has fluctuated since, it has been been on a downward trend overall.

Wednesday saw 65 new cases, down 103 during lockdown.

The weekly rate is also coming down after rising before lockdown.

There were 499 new cases in Sunderland in the week to February 19 (the latest five days are excluded from the weekly rate calculations in case of inaccuracy) – 179.7 cases per 100,000 people in the city.

The seven days to January 1 saw 1,337 new cases, a rate per 100,000 of 481.4.

The weekly rate on New Year’s Day was significantly higher than that seven weeks earlier.

In the week to November 13, 2020, there were 1,106 new cases , the equivalent of 308.3 per 100,000.

Gerry Taylor, Sunderland’s Executive Director of Public Health and Integrated Commissioning said the city had gone into lockdown with ‘very high’ case numbers: “With such a high rate it will inevitably take longer to see rates reduce,” she said.

“While not the only factor, the new variant of the virus will undoubtedly have played a part in the high case numbers because it’s much easier to pass on to others.

“Thankfully, our infection rates have come down and are continuing to fall but we still have a high number of cases, are continuing to see people admitted to hospital and unfortunately we are still seeing some deaths.“So it’s really important that we all continue to be vigilant and follow the rules and do everything we can collectively to stop the virus spreading.”

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