Fears over tighter restrictions in Sheffield as nearly 300 Covid-19 cases recorded in one day
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There were 299 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the city on Thursday, October 1 – the latest date for which figures are available.
That’s easily the highest daily number since the pandemic began, and more than three times as many as the 95 recorded a week earlier, on September 24.
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Hide AdSheffield’s weekly coronavirus rate for the seven days to October 1 now stands at 233.1 new cases per 100,000 people.
That’s still well below many other cities where local lockdowns are in place.
In Manchester, there were 560 daily cases recorded on Wednesday, September 30, and the weekly infection rate is 495.6.
Leeds has a weekly infection rate of 274.5, while Liverpool’s is 456.3 cases per 100,000 people.
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Hide AdIt is not known whether the latest figures for Sheffield have been affected by a technical glitch which led to nearly 16,000 coronavirus cases between September 25 and October 2 going unreported, before being added to the national figures for Saturday and Sunday.
The latest statistics show there were a massive 639 confirmed cases in Sheffield on Sunday, October 4, though data for the most recent three days is unreliable as it is likely to be adjusted.
Sheffield was last week upgraded on the Government’s coronavirus watchlist from an ‘area of concern’ to an ‘area of enhanced support’.
That means it will get extra help to curb the spread of Covid-19, particularly in those parts of the city with the highest rates, which could include more testing centres and greater support from experts to analyse how the virus is spreading.
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Hide AdSheffield Council has warned that further restrictions are ‘not out of the question’.
The third and highest level on the coronavirus watchlist is an ‘area of intervention’, where localised restrictions such as a ban on households mixing can be imposed.
Local restrictions are currently in place in: Greater Manchester; Leicester; the North East of England; Lancashire, Blackpool, and Blackburn with Darwen; Merseyside, Halton and Warrington; the West Midlands; and West Yorkshire.
Elsewhere in South Yorkshire, Rotherham, which is an ‘area of concern’, has a weekly infection rate of 139.4.
Doncaster’s weekly infection rate is 89.8, and in Barnsley it stands at 106.1.