Health chiefs in Birmingham 'worried' over rate of infection increase
One of Birmingham’s leading health chiefs says he is ‘worried’ about the rising rate of infection in the city – after a 29-year-old became the latest casualty.
The rate of infections in Birmingham has now passed 30, and currently stands at a figure of 31.7 per 100,000 in the seven days up to September 4.
This is up from 29.7, a figure described as "concerning" by Director of Public Health Dr Justin Varney during a West Midlands Combined Authority meeting.
Chief executive of University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) Dr David Rosser said that the rising rate was now beginning to result in increased hospital admissions, with a 29-year-old among the latest deaths.
"I know there’s been lots of talk about the increases we’re seeing in the community not coming through to the hospital – well we are beginning to see that, as we would have expected," he said.
"Ten days to two weeks after the increases in the community we start seeing that filter through to hospital, we are seeing more people coming into hospital than we have in the last few weeks, and we are seeing more people in intensive care than we have in the last few weeks.
"And we have actually had two people, one of them only 29 years old, dying last week of Covid. So the hospital, while it’s nothing like it was back in the spring, we are pretty worried about where this is going.
"And that’s the key message from us."
Also present at the meeting was council leader Ian Ward, who was asked about the increased risk of lockdown as cases continued to rise.
However he sought to allay fears around a city-wide lockdown, stating that the measures already put into place should soon see the case rate reducing.
"We’re continuing to monitor the situation very very closely, and we remain an area of enhanced support," he said.
"We are using the measures that are now available to us, particularly around direction orders, to keep on top of the virus numbers.
"There are no plans at the moment for a lockdown, either of the city or of any part of the city. Indeed I remain sceptical that you could apply a lockdown to part of the city, because I think then the messaging would become so confused that we’d run the risk of people stopping listening to all of the advice completely.
"So we’re not going down that route at the moment, and our discussions with government this week indicate that the government continue to be confident that the measures we are taking will get us back on top of these numbers."
