Devon covid begins to drop

But still above national average

Covid cases have fallen sharply across Devon, but still remain higher than the national average in every area of the county.

Latest figures for the week to Thursday 29 August show infections dropped almost 40 per cent in the Devon County Council area, while Torbay and Plymouth reported falls of just over 30 and 10 per cent respectively.

Of the county’s district areas, West Devon had the biggest decline in cases – down half on last week’s figure. Infections across Teignbridge, Torridge, East Devon, Mid Devon and Exeter fell more than a third.

The big drop comes a week after the south west was designated as an ‘enhanced response area’ to help combat weeks of rising infections. Steve Brown, Devon’s director of public health said health chiefs in the county were still having discussions with the government about what extra support would be provided as part of this enhanced status.

Mr Brown said: “The reality is it’s going to be more of what we’re familiar with already. We’re going to see increases in our public health campaigns, encouraging people to get tested if they symptoms.

“We’re also going to see better use of our community testing vans. We’ve got five testing vans which go round across Devon – two of those already have embedded vaccination teams. They’re going out to areas where there’s low uptake of vaccine and encouraging particularly young people and people who wouldn’t ordinarily go to our fixed vaccination sites to come forward and get vaccinated.”

HOSPITALISATIONS

Despite cases falling, Devon’s hospitals have admitted more patients with the virus, with the figure up by 10 on last week.

Latest figures for Tuesday 31 August show 146 covid patients in the county’s hospitals. However this remains some way below the number being treated during last winter’s peak.

Of those 146 patients, 54 are at Derriford, 51 at the RD&E, 16 in Torbay, 19 in North Devon and six are being cared for at Devon Partnership mental health trust services. Of the total number of patients, 12 are in mechanical ventilation beds.

DEATHS

Twenty-five more people died in the county within 28 days of testing positive for covid in the latest complete seven-day period (up to and including Sunday 29 August). Fourteen were in the Devon County Council area, seven in Plymouth and four in Torbay.

A total of 1,132 people in Devon have died within 28 days of a positive test since the pandemic began. This includes 230 in Plymouth and 174 in Torbay.

VACCINATIONS

Government figures for vaccinations have been adjusted to include those aged 16 and over.

The number of people who have received at least one dose of a vaccine is now 87 per cent in the Devon County Council area, 85 per cent in Torbay and 83 per cent in Plymouth.

The proportion of people who are now fully vaccinated with both jabs is now 79 per cent in Devon, 77 per cent in Torbay and 74 per cent in Plymouth.