COVID cases in Solihull reached 1,495 cases per 100,000 in the week to New Year’s Eve – and this figure is expected to keep rising as pupils return to the classroom says Solihull health boss Ruth Tennant.
In all there were 3,252 recorded cases between December 25 and 31 – an increase of 709 cases compared to the week previous, bringing the overall total to 46,229 cases.
There have also been 687 coronavirus-related deaths registered to December 17.
This comes as the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson announced he hopes the country can “ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again”.
Ms Tennant said: “In the last week we have seen overall Covid rates rise sharply in the borough.
“We expect this to continue over the coming days and weeks, particularly as pupils return to schools.
“This increase is due to the Omicron variant being so much easier to pass on when we mix with others.
“This rapid rise in positive cases is not resulting in a similar rise in Covid patients in critical care but there continues to be very significant pressure on local NHS services as a result of patients who are ill with Covid at what is always a very busy time of year for the NHS.
“Locally our NHS services are feeling the strain due to their own staff being sick with Covid or self-isolating and we know many other sectors are currently affected by staff absences.”
Throughout the pandemic the Solihull mantra has been to ‘do the right thing’ to keep everyone safe and Ms Tennant is reinforcing that message.
She is calling for residents to get vaccinated and have the booster if they are eligible, wear a face covering on public transport, crowded indoor spaces and in unventilated places, adhere to government advice and keep testing at home twice a week.
To book a lateral flow test at one of the Solihull Community Testing Hubs visit https://www.solihull.gov.uk/COVID-19/covid-testing.
If a lateral flow test comes back positive or a person has any Covid symptoms they should self-isolate and book a PCR test online at https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test.
