Coronavirus: Sheffield at 'RED LEVEL' as city records highest number of cases in one day since pandemic hit

The authority said that there had been ‘a sustained rise’ in cases of the deadly bug over the last 21 days- and yesterday (Wednesday, September 30) the city recorded its highest number of cases in a single day since the pandemic hit.Government statistics show a concerning 159 people in the city tested positive for Covid-19.

The previous highest figure was 110 on March 3, when testing was largely restricted to hospital settings.

The total number of confirmed positive cases in Sheffield now stands at 6,259.

There were 95 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days up to September 27 – while the average area in England had 28.

New data shows that cases are also now being found across the whole of the city and not confined to certain areas and postcodes as seen before.

As of September 27, 95.1 people per every 100,000 are testing positive.

Sheffield is recording an average of 78 positive cases per day, based on the previous seven days.

This indicates the ‘R’ number is above 1 in Sheffield and the virus cases will increase quickly.

Cases are mainly prevalent in younger people and it has remained at this level for the last few weeks, with the average age for a positive case standing at 33.

But the Council warned that the city is beginning to see an increase in cases in older people.

In his latest update, Sheffield's director of Public Health Greg Fell said ‘in a word, it’s hotting up’.

"The instance is going up pretty quickly, doubling about once a week,” added Mr Fell.

"That’s happening across the north of England, Sheffield isn’t particularly special there. And we expect it to continue to go up.

"The average age of a case at the moment is in the mid-30s. That is beginning to go up, only very slowly, but certainly we are beginning to see a definitive shift in transmission back into older age groups which is very worrying.

"The obvious implication is that we will continue to do all we can to protect those who are most likely to be seriously affected by the virus, and we’d encourage all those people who think they could be infected to continue to wash their hands, keep their distance and wear a face covering as these things do make a difference.”

Mr Fell went on: “We haven’t yet got to anything that equals exponential growth. We haven’t yet got to what you would characterise as wave two.

"That will likely come, so we as a city have an opportunity to change that path. We have to act collectively, we have to act now and we have to act responsibly."

A spokesperson for Sheffield City Council said: “We cannot stress how important it is to reduce contact to reduce the spread.

"The smaller the space and the more people in that space, the higher the risk of spreading the virus. Limit your social circle - remember the rule of six.”

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