Deaths

There have been four more hospital deaths announced. Two occurred yesterday and two on Tuesday. The fatality total at the York and Scarborough hospitals, since 1st September, has now reached 298.

There is however some better news as the death rate now seems to be declining.

Test results

THIRTY SIX (36) additional positive test results have been announced today. They bring the cumulative total to 11,251

The rate /100k population figure has fallen to 178.53. That is the lowest figure recorded since 21st December 2020

The rate is however, expected to rise again when tomorrows figures are released before falling again over the weekend.

York has an infection rate below the regional and national averages. It is still slightly higher than the overall rate in North Yorkshire but, on current trends, will go below the county rate some time next week.

Neighbourhoods

Good news today as the City no longer has any neighbourhoods with a very high level of cases (over 400). The number of cases in Haxby has dropped from 23 to 17.

In addition – for the first time since 21st December, we have a neighbourhood (the City Centre) with a case rate of less than 50

Things may change again tomorrow when we are expecting a spike in cases, but hopefully next week more neighbourhoods will fall below the 200 case rate threshold.

Vaccinations

National and regional

Hospitals

According to latest government figures, there are 175 COVID-19 patients being cared for by the York Hospital Trust.

This represents a substantial reduction on last weeks figure which was above 200.

Twelve are in intensive care

Tests

5407 PCR test were completed during the week ending 30th January in the City. 7.8% of the tests were positive. The positivity rate continues to fall

1725 lateral flow test were completed yesterday (3rd)

Police enforcement

North Yorkshire Police have issued a further 143 FPNs for breaches of the Coronavirus regulations since the 26 January 2021.

This takes the total number of FPNs issued since the third national lockdown began on 6 January 2021 to 471.

The numbers are broken down by region, gender, age and breach below.

The total number of notices issued in York since 6th January 2021 has been 114. Most were for unlawful indoor gatherings.

…..but crime levels generally reducing

Annual crime statistics have been published today by the Office of National Statistics. Crime in England and Wales – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Covering the 12-month period to year ending September 2020, the figures show recorded crime has decreased by 9 % percent in North Yorkshire.

Deputy Chief Constable Phil Cain, said:

“Not withstanding that for the past ten months, the global pandemic has supressed some areas of crime, such a burglary and theft, the overall figures for North Yorkshire are encouraging.

“The decrease in overall crime is also down to some significant pro-active work by a number of teams across the force.

“We believe Stalking and Harassment offences have continued to rise due to the fact victims have increased confidence in reporting it. The increase can also be attributed to the requirement to record multiple crimes where stalking and/or harassment has occurred, rather than simply one crime per incident.

“With drugs offences, the rise reflects our pro-active approach to dealing with drugs issues such as County Lines. This issue causes a disproportionate amount of harm to local communities and increases the fear of crime – this is why county lines continues to remain a priority. My thanks go to the public for providing the community intelligence which enables this pro-active work to be carried out. This intelligence is key to us achieving these results.

“Post-lockdown in the summer of 2020, we experienced a significant rise in public order offences at some of our beauty spots.  We responded to this with an increase in enforcement in those areas.

“The landscape of policing will endure change as we respond to the pandemic, however we will continue to place victims at the centre of everything we do.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank our committed workforce who do their very best every day to keep our communities safe. Equally I want to thank the public of North Yorkshire and the City of York for their support during this incredibly challenging time for us all.”