Coronavirus: New figures show how many people have died in Portsmouth, Havant, Gosport and Fareham

Councillors spoke out as new figures released from the Office for National Statistics, detailed the number of people who had died with Covid-19 in each local authority. Previous figures broke down the deaths by NHS trust.

Between March 1 to April 17, 48 people died with Covid-19 in Portsmouth, 28 in Gosport, 43 in Havant and 48 in Fareham.

The figures showed more deaths in highly deprived areas, but this did not include the Portsmouth area.

It comes after prime minister Boris Johnson told the nation on Thursday that the we can ‘now see the sunlight’ as the number of daily new coronavirus cases begins to tail off.

In data published on Friday there was an increase of one new case in Portsmouth, four in Southampton, and two in Hampshire the previous day.

The leader of Fareham Borough Council, Cllr Sean Woodward, said discovering his borough and Portsmouth had the same number of deaths made for ‘scary’ reading.

He said: ‘The reason why the rate of deaths in Fareham is so high is that we have a higher elderly population.

‘But regardless, those figures are scary to look at – fighting an invisible enemy like this isn’t easy.

‘I must admit, it’s very worrying.’

And despite the prime minister’s words, Cllr Woodward warned against easing all lockdown measures.

‘We might be past this peak, but if we unlock everything we would have a much larger problem on our hands,’ he said.

‘Collectively, we have to be very careful, and people must stay at home.’

Leader of Portsmouth City Council, Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, is also urging people to continue playing their part in beating the virus.

‘We're past a certain peak, but not the absolute peak, of the virus,’ he said.

‘As a country we’ve been so successful with social distancing and isolation to protect the NHS – but that means a lot of people haven’t had the virus, and don’t have immunity.

‘If we were to abandon that now, we would see a much bigger second, or even third, peak in the number of cases.’

Portsmouth MP Penny Mordaunt said: ‘We have turned the tide of this wave of the virus thanks to the sacrifices of everyone by social distancing. I know how tough this is, for people who have lost loved ones, for people isolated, for people watching businesses they have built being destroyed, for all those in harm’s way on the frontline.

‘We know there will still be hardships and losses ahead, but our collective action is helping us get ahead of the disease. Thank you for all you are doing. We will beat this and come through it.’

Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan said: ‘Portsmouth people have pulled together in the face of this pandemic and it is heartening to see their efforts may be drawing Britain closer to the road to recovery.

'As we look towards entering the next stage of this pandemic, we must acknowledge that the UK is behind the curve and behind other countries on testing, social care, PPE, and support for businesses.

‘I fully support the lockdown and the decision to extend it earlier this month. But we also have to plan for the future. That means engaging with teachers, trade unions, businesses, local authorities and other community leaders in the coming days about how such a strategy can be put in place to serve the interests of public health, the economy and people’s jobs.’

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