Atherstone Covid-19 update: When 'nothing to report' is good news

NATIONAL SYMPTOM TRACKER APP PUTS TOWN IN BOTTOM TIER OF VIRUS HOTSPOTS

BUT JUST IN CASE, THIS WEEKEND SEES BOROUGH COUNCIL CAR PARK TURNED INTO MOBILE TESTING STATION AS RESPONSE PLAN IN 'EVENT OF LOCAL LOCKDOWN'

ATHERSTONE has adopted a 'belt-and-traces' policy to Covid-19 just as it dropped to the bottom of a UK hotspot league table of active cases.

The borough has found itself delighted to be the Midlands current back marker for people predicted to have the symptomatic virus – with none recorded on the national symptom tracker.

Five days ago the figure stood at 1446 active cases per million cases. Neighbouring Nuneaton and Bedworth was yesterday in the top tier between 1,000 and 5,000 cases per million leading the regional field on 1,902 active cases per million population.

Atherstone and North Warwickshire is also keeping firmly at the right end of the 'new case' figures for Covid-19 which is based on Public Health England data.

The figures, for the seven days to August 7, are extracted from tests carried out in laboratories and in the wider community with the rate expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Coventry heads this week's total with 12.9 cases per 100,000 with North Warwickshire down at 1.5 new cases per 100,000, compared with a figure of 7.7 in the previous seven-day period.

Top of the league is Pendle on 96.6 new cases per 100,000 population, almost doubling from the previous week's timeframe.

But the borough council, supported by Warwickshire County Council and the Ministry of Defence, is determined to keep the lid on the spread of the virus – with the arrival of a mobile testing unit to facilitate a "quick response" to local outbreaks.

The borough council and public car parks in Woolpack Way, Atherstone, have been designated the MTU site for a two-day operation on Sunday August 16 and Monday August 17. The car parks will be closed to the public on those days.

North Warwickshire Borough Council's Atherstone-based leader Councillor David Wright said the purpose of the MTU was to a strategic response plan in the event of a local lockdown.

But he stressed: "It does not in any way mean that there is any case for concern in Atherstone.

"I hope the MTU won't be needed, but this forms an important part of our emergency planning and preparedness work."

News of the borough's current situation – with its no active cases per million as of yesterday on the Covid-19 Symptom Study tracker – comes in contrast to UK coronavirus cases rising above the 1,000-a-day barrier on Sunday for the first time since June 26.

A further 1,062 people in the UK have tested positive for the disease. Yesterday's daily total rose by 816 to 311,641.

And on the global stage, the figure has smashed through the 20 million mark – taking only four days to add one million cases.

Its rate is 536.3 per 100,000 compared with hotspot neighbouring Nuneaton and Bedworth's 908 cases (up eight in the same time frame) at 699.1 per 100,000.

Warwickshire's total of confirmed cases stands at 2,634 (up 20 in five days) with a rate per 100,000 of 455.8. Deaths county-wide total 535.

The UK total today is 311,641 with the current-calculated death toll standing at 46,595.

The 24-hour fatality total increased by 21 people across the UK.

New fatality figures released by the Office for National Statistics put the UK death tally at 56,800 with 63.4 per cent of that total occurring in hospital and the remainder in care homes. Some 38,578 people in 75 or older age group have lost their lives to the virus.

In seven weeks the world total has risen from 7.2 million cases to just breaking the 20 million barrier at 20,259,579.

The US total represents a quarter of that figure at 5,251,446.

The UK now stands 12th in the league table of cases but fourth in terms of fatalities.

Global deaths have risen in the same period from 408,737 to 739,212.