How the rate of new coronavirus cases in Sheffield has slowed dramatically

The number of people testing postive for coronavirus in Sheffield has fallen dramatically, according to the latest figures.
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More than 100 new cases of COVID-19 were being confirmed in the city when the virus was at its peak in April, but fewer than 40 people have tested positive in the last four days.

Health chiefs were quick to point out that the number of confirmed cases was not the most reliable indicator of the disease’s spread, as most people who caught it – especially during the early days of the outbreak – would not have been tested.

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More than 2,500 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in SheffieldMore than 2,500 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sheffield
More than 2,500 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sheffield
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Sheffield had the UK’s highest number of confirmed infections per 100,000 population at one point, but this was put down to the high number of people being tested by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, which has been praised for its response to the crisis.

It still has England’s 10th highest number of confirmed cases per capita, with 2,523 people who have tested positive to date – a rate of 433.1 per 100,000 population, though this figure may still be skewed by the early testing done by hospitals in Sheffield.

But as testing across the UK has been ramped up over recent weeks, the number of new cases being confirmed in the city has fallen.

The first confirmed case in the city was recorded on March 11, and just over a week later on March 20, 48 people in the city had tested positive.

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By March 23, this had more than doubled to 106, and three days later the figure stood at 240.

On April 3, the number of confirmed cases rose by 113 in a single day, to 715, and the figure continued to rise seemingly inexorably, to 1,137 on April 11, 1,631 on April 21 and 2,009 on April 28.

But the rate of new cases being confirmed has since fallen considerably, with 314 more people testing positive between May 2 and May 23, and 39 more confirmed cases in the four days between then and May 27, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.

The true number of people in Sheffield who have had COVID-19 is likely to be much higher, with most individuals who contracted the virus either recovering at home or not showing any symptoms.

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A recent survey suggested seven per cent of people in the UK may have been infected.

There are still likely to be many people who get the disease and are never tested but the latest figures for confirmed cases appear to support the recent claim by Sheffield’s director of public health, Greg Fell, that the number of people in the city with COVID-19 was ‘vanishingly small’.

He said at the time that there had been 30,000 cases in the city based on the number of people contacting NHS 111 with suspected symptoms.

A total of 265 people people have died with coronavirus at hospitals in Sheffield, according to the latest figures from NHS England, and many people have died at care homes in the city.