'Not out of the woods yet' warning as Covid cases continue to fall in Shropshire
With the Covid rates in the county at their lowest since pre-lockdown, public health officials have warned "we’re not out of the woods yet".
The latest government data has put the rate of Covid infections per 100,000 people at 19 in Shropshire and 20 in Telford & Wrekin. Powys is even lower at 10.
Rachel Robinson, Shropshire Council’s Director of Public Health said that in the seven days in the week up to April 1 the number of cases in the county had fallen by a third – 61 new cases were reported, down 31 on the previous week.
The figures put the rate of infection for the county well below the West Midlands at 45, and England as a whole at 40.9.
Mrs Robinson said there had also been no Covid hospital deaths, and only five Coronavirus patients occupying hospital beds – way down from the 165 being treated at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust at the end of January.
With the biggest step in relaxing restrictions since January taking place on Monday, Mrs Robinson has again urged caution in the approach from the public.
She said she still wants to see a further fall in the number of cases, and urged people to get tested twice a week in an effort to keep on top of the situation.
Urging
"Thanks to the efforts of everyone across Shropshire, we are continuing to see the number of cases of Covid-19 fall across our communities," said Mrs Robinson.
“We’ve all worked hard over the past 12 months to bring down the number of Covid cases in Shropshire. It’s important we don’t let our guard down and continue with the efforts to make sure we are not spreading the virus as we start to head out of the house more.
“We would still like to see our infection rates fall even further, and so we are still urging people to get tested regularly.
"From next week, rapid testing kits will be available for collection from more sites across Shropshire, including local libraries and leisure centres.
"We are encouraging everyone to test twice weekly, this is in addition to secondary school pupils, parents and frontline workers who have already being doing this.
“The easing of further restrictions on Monday is another another welcome step towards normality, but we need to take things slowly as we’re not out of the woods yet.
“We can hopefully enjoy a few more freedoms with this set of eased restrictions, but please remember to stick to the ‘hands, face, space’ basics and I would also encourage people to keep ‘stay local’."
