Bradford daily Covid cases record broken three days in a row

After gradually increasing from mid-December, the number of positive cases recorded in the district shot up to a record 1,423 on December 29 – the most recent date for complete figures.

It was the third day in a row the record for infections had been smashed in Bradford, after 847 new cases on December 27 and 1,146 cases on the 28th.

Prior to last month, the date with the most cases recorded in a single day had been November 2, 2020, when 603 cases were reported. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, it took more than two months – until the start of May – for the same number of cases to be recorded as were seen just on December 29.

It comes as the infection rate has gone about 1,000 per 100,000 people in the district, meaning one in 100 people have had Covid in the past week, after the number of new cases in the seven days to December 29 rose to 5,476, double the number reported in the previous week.

Daily reported cases in Bradford since the Covid pandemic began, hitting record highs on December 29, 2021. Pic: UK

Just a two weeks earlier 1,742 new cases were reported in a week, showing how quickly the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has swept through the country and district.

Case numbers have increased in all age groups, but most significantly in those aged 20 to 40.

At the start of April, the infection rate for 20-24 year olds was 225.9, whereas now it is 1,801.3, a rise of almost 700 per cent.

For 25-29 year olds, the infection rate has risen by 463 per cent to 1,984.3, meaning almost one in 50 people in this age group currently have Covid.

How infection rates for each age group have gone up during December 2021. Pic: UK Gov

Bradford’s infection rate is currently the 39th lowest in the UK out of more than 240 local authorities.

Why does this matter?

Of course, people are ill and having to self-isolate. That means people unable to work, affecting businesses, public services and perhaps most critically, the NHS.

A small proportion of people who are catching Covid – mostly those who are either completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated – are ending up in hospital, and while it’s only a small proportion of total cases, the more cases there are the higher this number will be.

The infection rate in Bradford during 2021, spiking in July before reaching record levels at the end of December. Pic: UK Gov

Currently at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, there were 49 Covid patients in hospital on December 28, the latest available figures.

Patient numbers are trending upwards slightly in recent days but still remain below levels in November and the summer, and way below the peaks of January 2021, November 2020 and April 2020.

This shows how much of an impact the vaccination programme has made in reducing serious illness and hospitalisation, and why it is imperative everyone gets vaccinated against Covid as soon as possible.

With the spread of Omicron showing no let up, it’s likely that case numbers are going to keep rising, and hospitalisations are also likely to increase, especially as the Prime Minister seemingly has no plans to enforce harsher restrictions to try and limit the spread of the highly transmissible variant.