Coronavirus cases in Portsmouth are rising fastest among the middle-aged

The rate of Covid-19 cases in Portsmouth is now highest among adults aged between 45 and 59, followed by those aged 34 to 44 years old.

Director of public health in Portsmouth Helen Atkinson told a Portsmouth CCG governing board meeting on Wednesday that Covid-19 related admission to Queen Alexandra Hospital had increased by 50 per cent in the last week with six patients.

Ms Atkinson said: ‘Initially most of the positive cases, in this particular wave, were in younger adults but now we are seeing an increase in the other age groups and that is obviously starting to impact on the NHS.

‘Cases in the last 7 days have been highest in 45 to 59-year-olds followed by 34 to 44-year-olds whereas a few weeks ago we were seeing the highest rate in 15 to 29 year olds which now has substantially come down.

‘What is also of concern is the rate of cases for the over-60s is increasing and it is most likely that this age group are the ones who will have more serious illness and become a hospital admission.

‘Case rates in children are generally lower but the rates are higher and rising more quickly in our older children at secondary school age.

If we look at our local hospital we are seeing hospital admissions that have increased by 50 per cent in the last week.

‘There have been nine Covid-19 deaths at the QA since the end of October but it is important to note that we did have a peak of Covid-19 deaths up until April 11 and that is much lower than now.’

Portsmouth has seen 58 new coronavirus cases confirmed yesterday which brings the total to 3,807 with a rate of 1,771.5 cases per 100,000 resident population in the pandemic so far.

SEE ALSO: Latest Hampshire Covid-19 case numbers for Portsmouth, Southampton, Fareham, Gosport, Havant and East Hampshire

Ms Atkinson added: ‘Until September we were one of the lowest infection rates in terms of the south east which was fairly unusual for a city area that is quite built up.

‘However we started to see, along with many other city areas where there were universities so a higher population of young adults, an increase in September. I don’t want to say it is all related to universities.

‘We can now see from that data that our young adult infection rate is coming down significantly but our other population ages are increasing.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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