West Berkshire Covid-19 infection rate drops
Coronavirus infection rates in Berkshire are starting to dip in every area following a spike last month, writes Local Democracy Reporter James Aldridge.
The spike saw two areas – West Berkshire and Wokingham – record their highest daily cases and infection rates ever.
The rate is used to gauge how much Covid-19 will spread.
The infection rate is the number of people who have tested positive per 100,000 of the population, the latest rates below were recorded on Saturday, October 30.
It is understood the rise of cases in West Berkshire and Wokingham was partly due to a laboratory, used to verify tests, recording ‘false negative’ results obtained at test sites at Newbury Showground and Mereoak Park & Ride.
When people re-tested, their tests showed up positive.
Last month, Wokingham Borough Council’s executive member for health blamed the rise on the false negatives.
Charles Margetts (Con, Finchampstead North) said: “A proportion of residents have not isolated when infectious as they have been told, in error, that their Covid test was negative, which has contributed to an increase in transmission within the borough.”
At the time, he urged people to re-test and self-isolate where necessary.
But infection rates are now starting to dip, which can be seen in this flourish chart:
West Berkshire saw its worst month during the pandemic in October, with the infection rate reaching 908.1 on October 18.
The rate has since dropped to 517.5 on October 30.
On October 15, both West Berkshire and Wokingham recorded their highest number of fresh Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began.
West Berkshire recorded 253 positive cases and Wokingham recorded 217 cases on that day.
Last month, there was one day where every area recorded over 100 fresh cases, on October 27.
This has since dropped. In the most recent figures recorded yesterday (November 4) all areas recorded less than 100 cases.
You can see the daily Covid-19 case numbers recorded from highest to lowest below:
Daily cases
Wokingham – 92
West Berkshire – 87
Bracknell Forest – 87
Slough – 84
Windsor and Maidenhead – 75
Reading – 62
Total cases
There has been 117,440 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Berkshire since the pandemic began, based on figures up to November 3.
Slough – 24,637
Reading – 22,300
Wokingham – 20,130
Windsor and Maidenhead – 18,623
West Berkshire – 16,574
Bracknell Forest – 15,176
