New confirmed Covid cases drop by half in Mansfield and a third in Ashfield in the past week

From the seven days to Wednesday, April 21, the case rate in Mansfield district had dropped to 46.7 per 100,000 of population, down from 107.9 on Tuesday April 13 – when the area had the highest recorded rates in the country – and 98.8 this time last week.

At the weekly Covid-19 briefing for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire today (Friday, April 23), Jonathan Gribbin, director of public health for the county, said that the rates for Ashfield were down to 14.9 per 100,000 – compared to 23.5 the week before.

Overall in Nottinghamshire, the case rate was 24.1 per 100,000, with many districts reporting new cases down to their teens – a fall from 34.4 the week before.

Bassetlaw saw a rise to 41.7 cases per 100,000, but the figures were due to an additional 16 cases – many spread within households.

Nottingham city has a current rate of 34 per 100,000 and across England the number of new infections stands at 23.8 per 100,000, while in the East Midlands the rate is 28.9.

“The message from me is ‘steady as we go’,” Mr Gribbin said. “We have got a really quite positive picture in terms of new cases right now and I would like to thank residents for sticking to phase two of the roadmap, to businesses, to school leaders and their teaching and non-teaching staff.

“But it is still really important that if people get symptoms, they get tested as soon as possible and that they stay at home and isolate.”

He also urged residents to collect asymptomatic testing kits and to test themselves twice a week.

“This allows us to keep a close eye on what’s going on in the county,” he said.

Amanda Sillivan, of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said there had been no recorded deaths as a result from Covid-19 in Nottinghamshire hospitals over the last seven days.

Figures included sites run by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King’s Mill and Mansfield Community hospitals, and University Hospitals Nottingham NHS Trust, which oversees Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital.

The previous week throughout all of Nottinghamshire, including Bassetlaw which operates through a different CCG, there had been three hospital deaths and six the week before.

“It’s a while since we’ve had no deaths, which is really good news,” she said. “Psychologically, this is a real boost for hospital staff.

“They have had significant pressures, and in that week, seeing no deaths has been a real boost to morale.”

To date, 630,000 Nottinghamshire residents have been vaccinated, including 51,000 in the past seven days.

Under current regulations in the roadmap, residents must not socialise indoors with anyone they do not live with – unless they are part of a support bubble,

Outdoor gatherings of up to six people from two separate households is now allowed.

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