Boris Johnson announced the national lockdown on November 2Boris Johnson announced the national lockdown on November 2
Boris Johnson announced the national lockdown on November 2

Another Covid-19 lockdown is over...but did it work in Northamptonshire?

Cases down by nearly a third yet health chiefs warn we could be Tier Two for weeks

The number of positive Covid-19 tests in Northamptonshire fell by more than a third during the lockdown.

Government figures revealed a drop of 326 new lab-confirmed cases from November 5 to last Thursday — the latest reliable data.

Infection rates dropped county-wide — except for Corby and Kettering boroughs — but Public Health officials were quick to warn figures are still worryingly high and it could take "weeks" for the county to be in a position where loosening restrictions would be likely.

Our number crunchers compared figures for positive tests in the week ending November 5 — the first day of lockdown — to those in the week ending November 25.

Cases in Corby rose from 75 to 90 and Kettering's by nine to 127.

But there were huge drops in Northampton, Daventry and East Northamptonshire.

In Northampton, the number of positive tests fell by 144 to 400, in Daventry by 40 to 101 and in East Northants by 92 to 204.

South Northants saw a fall by 35 from 179 and Wellingborough by 39 to 91.

Yet the crucial infection rate figure used by the Government and scientists to decide which restrictions Northamptonshire operates under, remains stubbornly among the highest in the country.

Public Health Director Lucy Wightman said: "Some positive news is we have had a reduction in cases but sadly it's not as rapid a reduction as we would have liked.

"People have got to recognise we're at the upper end of Tier Two and it will take us quite a few weeks to get back into Tier One

"Our case rate went up significantly in couple of days between the national lockdown being announced and it coming into place with people going out and doing things.

"That means we've got more and more ground to make up."

■ Positive cases are allocated by residential postcodes and dated by the day the test was taken, not the day the positive result was reported. Seven-day rolling cases takes all the positive cases from a seven-day period and presents it as a rate per 100,000 people.

There are figures for the seven days to November 2, the day lockdown was announced, and every day to November 26 — the latest reliable figures.

However, remember that there is a five-day lag in the figures meaning that when lockdown was announced, they would not have been looking at figures to the 31st, but a period five days earlier, because of the window they allow for all test results to come back. This is why the most recent figures only go up to November 26, because otherwise it would look like cases had fallen in the most recent couple of days, just because results hadn't yet been recorded.

Infection rates dropped county-wide — except for Corby and Kettering boroughs — but Public Health officials were quick to warn figures are still worryingly high and it could take "weeks" for the county to be in a position where loosening restrictions would be likely.

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