Weekly Coronavirus cases have increased once again in Loughborough, with 268 more individuals testing positive in Loughborough, and over 900 students self-isolating.
268 positive cases were confirmed last week across Loughborough, of which 111 were located in the Loughborough University area which covers campus accommodation, William Morris Hall and the Old Ashby Road area.
This is up from 26 the previous week, and means the Loughborough University area has the 32nd highest number of cases in England. It’s also had the 11th highest week-on week increase in cases nationally.
The University has also announced that 191 cases have been detected amongst the student population through their ‘Connect & Protect’ system. In communications seen by Label, university staff have suggested that over 900 students are self-isolating, with 95% of cases being transmitted outside of University learning & teaching environments.
Elsewhere in Loughborough, Storer & Queens Park (the main part of the student triangle) has seen another 72 cases recorded in the last 7 days.
Lemyngton and Hastings, Shelthorpe and Woodthorpe, and the Outwoods all have seen similar case numbers, ranging from 21 to 25 new infections.
Cases have also increased across the entirety of Charnwood, with 445 new cases reported last week, up from 199 the week before.
However due to the reporting method by Public Health England, which only reports a 7-day rolling total and excludes case numbers from areas with less than 2 cases, it is possible that the real figures are higher than the statistics suggest.
The increase comes after the government released its new coronavirus restrictions system, which sees the country split into three ‘alert levels’, with Loughborough, and more widely Charnwood, put into the ‘medium’ category.
However, Charnwood could see ‘High’ restrictions imposed soon, with the Loughborough area seeing 380 cases per 100,000 in the last week – wall above the national average, and higher than places such as Leicester, Essex and London, which have been included in the ‘High’ tier.
Mike Sandys, Leicestershire County Council’ director of public health, said that “We’ve got cases rising everywhere in the county, and we now know that, based on the most recent data over the past few days, Charnwood has the highest rate.”
Cllr Jonathan Morgan, Leader of Charnwood Borough Council explained the increase, saying that“We have seen a spike in cases at Loughborough University which has happened at almost every other university city and town across the country. If you took those cases out of the Charnwood figures, we would be at similar levels to other districts and boroughs in Leicestershire.”
Universities across the country have been heavily affected by the spread of Coronavirus, with community transmission increasing exponentially – and concerns are now being raised that the same could be happening in Loughborough.
The Students Union has also organised a ‘Community Champions‘ initiative to support the students put into self-isolation. 183 volunteers have signed up, and the program has received 290 requests for support from self-isolating students.
The Champions will provide doorstep delivery of prescriptions, post, library books, printing, and meals for students who are self-isolating and unable to leave their place of residence. This scheme is be available to all students, irrespective of whether they live on campus or off campus.
Label will be updating the figures on our Loughborough Coronavirus Map every weekday with the latest figures, and will post weekly updates on the latest situation across the town each Thursday.
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Notes on Methodology
Cases at the local-level are split into Middle Super Output Areas (MSOAs) – small areas with around 7,200 average population.
Counts of between 0 and 2 cases per MSOA are shown as ‘0-2’, to protect the identity of those who have tested positive in that area, and therefore no data is available until cases hit 3 in each MSOA.
Data is collected by Public Health England here, and is updated every 7 days for each calendar week, at a 4 day delay. Weekly data is published on Thursdays. You can download a copy of the latest data for Loughborough here. Data reproduced under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
