The number of COVID-19 cases being recorded in Herefordshire continues to fall, that’s despite a huge increase in lateral flow testing as schools return to face to face education.
| DATE | LATERAL FLOW TESTS CONDUCTED | NUMBER OF POSITIVE TESTS (INCLUDING PCR & LATERAL FLOW TESTS) |
| 02/03 | 2,067 | 12 |
| 03/03 | 2,389 | 6 |
| 04/03 | 3,138 | 3 |
| 05/03 | 2,574 | 4 |
| 06/03 | 615 | 3 |
| 07/03 | 2,676 | 3 |
| 08/03 | 4,921 | 2 |
The number of people receiving PCR COVID-19 tests in Herefordshire has fallen from an average of 8,000 a week in January, to around 5,500 at the start of March. Much of this is believed to be due to less people booking tests. Hereford’s test centre at Merton Meadow has been closed for over a week but home testing kits and lateral flow tests have been available throughout this period.
The most positive sign is that the percentage of people testing positive from PCR tests fell to 1.1% on 4th March, down from a peak of over 10% early in January.
With schools returning this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his scientific advisors have said that they expect to see an increase in cases over the coming weeks, but there is hope that due to the impressive speed of the vaccine rollout, that hospitalisations will remain manageable and much lower than the peak in January.
Data Source – Testing | Coronavirus in the UK (data.gov.uk)
