COMMENT: Has student return led to a rise in infections in Portsmouth?

Has this policy led to a rise in Covid cases among young people? It would certainly seem to be a contributing factor.

Look at what's happening in Portsmouth. We report today how the city’s rate of cases has passed 200 per 100,000 people for the first time.

The highest rate of infection is in the 18 to 29 age group and rates in Portsmouth are higher in this age group than in most other parts of the country.

Would that be the case if we didn't have a large university in the heart of the city, where thousands of young people from all over the country have gathered with all the attendant risks of any infection spreading?

Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson maintains that students shouldn't have been allowed back to any university. He criticises what he calls the government's 'poor decision’, saying it was not thought out.

But what of the universities themselves? What do they think?

University of Portsmouth vice-chancellor Professor Graham Galbraith believes re-opening was the right call and has talked of young people being subjected to a 'blame game'.

The university will remain open during the second lockdown and has said it will continue to deliver teaching online and in person to small groups where it is safe to do so.

It has spent £10m on measures to mitigate the risk of infection, including free face masks, temperature scanners, hand sanitiser points, its own testing centre and the restructuring of buildings and classes to maintain social distancing.

Yet the question still remains. If all those students had not arrived back in the city in September, would levels of infection now be lower?