Weekly Coronavirus cases have tripled in Loughborough, with 73 more individuals testing positive in Loughborough, up from just 25 the week before.
73 positive cases were confirmed last week across Loughborough, of which 26 were located in the Loughborough University area which covers campus accommodation, William Morris Hall and the Old Ashby Road area. This is up from none the previous week.
Other major increases have been detected in Storer & Queens Park (the main part of the student triangle), and Lemyngton & Hastings area, which covers the town centre.
Cases have also increased hugely across Charnwood, with 196 new cases in the last week, up from 96 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.
A broken Excel spreadsheet also caused tens of thousands of results to be released late, resulting in a higher-than-usual increase in the case numbers last week.
The increase comes during government debate over a new coronavirus restrictions system, which is due to be announced on Monday and enacted later next week. This will see the country split into three ‘alert levels’, with Loughborough, and more widely Charnwood, possibly seeing increased restrictions such as a ban on households mixing, or earlier Pub curfews.
‘Level two’ restrictions will be imposed on areas that have more than 100 cases per 100,000 population – Leicestershire as a whole had 78 per 100,000 last week, and Loughborough had 103 cases per 100,000.
Universities across the country have been heavily affected by the coronavirus spread, with community transmission increasing exponentially – and concerns are now being raised that the same could be happening in Loughborough.
The University last disclosed its cases on Monday, announcing that they had detected 26 cases amongst the student population through their ‘Connect & Protect’ system – but the number is now expected to be much higher.
Students are being encouraged to self-isolate across campus, with many doing so voluntarily after noticing symptoms.
The City of Nottingham has also seen an increase in cases over the last week, with the return of students likely to be a primary cause of this rise – ‘level two’ restrictions are expected to be imposed on the entire county on Monday.
The Local Council has been delivering leaflets to residents advising them to stay safe and aware of the COVID-19 threat to Loughborough.
The County Council’s Director of Public Health, Mike Sandys, said that “it’s up to us all to fight this virus. We’re in it for the long haul and it’s in our hands around reducing the infection rate.
“We all need to wash our hands regularly, use a face covering when social distancing is not possible and try to keep your distance from those not in your household.”
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.
