Covid in Sheffield: City's latest death toll as vaccinations dramatically reduce number of people dying

The number of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test for COVID-19 in Sheffield now stands at 1,354, according to latest Government statistics.

This follows three more deaths in the city yesterday (December 30).

The death toll in Sheffield passed the 1,000 mark on February 3.

The increase in the number of deaths over the 10 months since then has therefore been comparatively slow. The first 1,000 deaths took place in the 11 months between March 2020 and February 2021.

This is the case in spite of the fact that Sheffield’s infection rate topped 1,000 new cases per 100,000 people this week for the first time in 2021, and the positivity rate for PCR test results in the city reached an all time high.

Sheffield’s director of public health Greg Fell has credited the sharp decrease in the rate of Covid deaths to vaccination.

Speaking to The Star earlier this year, Mr Fell said: “The vaccine programme is the thing that made all the difference. The rate is high and some people are ill or in hospital but it is nothing like the same as it was in the past.

"It is in a completely different league thanks to the vaccine.

“We delivered the vaccine programme quickly and we got numbers you can only dream of compared to things like the flu vaccine.

"That saved hundreds of lives and thousands of people being admitted to hospital. The vaccine programme did not happen by accident.”

The first death within 28 days of a postive test in Sheffield was recorded on March 12, 2020.

And the number of people dying within 28 days of testing positive peaked in the city soon afterwards. In the seven days to April 24, 114 people in Sheffield died. It remained high in the surrounding weeks.

This was the worst period, and since May 8, 2020, the highest number of people to have died in one week in Sheffield is 52, in January 2021.

Since the first vaccines became available to all adults in the city in May, the highest number of daily deaths within 28 days of testing positive in Sheffield has been 19, on September 17.