SCC’s summary report for the week ending Saturday, February 11.

By Martin Giles

Covid infection rates continued to drop sharply across the region, county and borough in the latest reported period ending February 11.

The rate in Guildford borough, at 842 per 100k of population, is the lowest it has been since the pre-Omicron variant period in November.

But Surrey along with Sussex are among a minority of counties in the UK with a rate still over 800 per 100k of population.

The darker the shading the higher the infection rate.

Hospital admissions for Covid cases have increased slightly at the Royal Surrey and St Peter’s hospitals, presumably because of the continuing lag time between infections and admissions.

But there was only one patient on ventilation at the Royal Surrey although the number of Covid patients, at 72, is significantly higher than in previous reports.

The number of Covid related deaths has increased slightly in recent weeks but remains relatively low. In total, there have been 289 deaths in the borough (population approximately 150,000), during the pandemic, where Covid has been entered on the death certificate.

If a death certificate mentions Covid, it will not always be the main cause of death but may be a contributory factor.

Currently, fewer than two in every three Covid-related deaths are estimated to be caused by the infection.

And the performance statistics at the Royal Surrey remain good compared with the national average. Only the Accident & Emergency wait time, over four hours in 29% of cases, is higher than the national figure while Ambulance queues and “hospital bed waits” are much shorter.

See also: Local Covid-19 Stats