Sheffield fifth highest in the country for Covid cases - but what proportion of the population has had it?

And while, as director for public health Greg Fell has explained, this high number of positive cases is a direct result of a successful testing programme which tested more people, it still suggests many here have had the virus at some point since March 2020.

But exactly how many of us have had it?

UK Government data shows that, as of November 13 this year, there had been a total of 89,640 Covid cases in Sheffield.

This is the fifth highest in the country, and given Sheffield’s population is 589,214, means that 15.2 per cent of people in Sheffield have had the virus.

This means roughly three out of every 20 people will have had it.

However, because Sheffield’s population is large, this proportion ranks at only 95th in the country out of all the local authorities.

Speaking of how Sheffield has often been considered a Covid ‘hotspot’, Mr Fell explained: “Testing worked well, and that is thanks to Sheffield Virology Lab.

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“It was so successful that Sheffield was a ‘hotspot’ for a while.

“That is because when you look you find and in Sheffield we were testing a lot more. Sheffield prioritised this long before the Government did and this enabled us to get a much clearer picture early on to work with on control measures.”

The infection rate in Sheffield remains high – around the 290 per 100,000 of the population mark – however they have dipped since October.

And while the virus continues to spread, Mr Fell has credited the vaccine rollout with preventing another lockdown from being needed, easing pressure on hospitals and reducing the number of deaths.

He said: “One year ago we would have been in full lockdown with this infection rate and these figures.

“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. There was a lot of work in the background from doctors, nurses, communications, logistics.”