South Africa variant ‘not in Sheffield’ as health chief issues warning over Covid patients

In his latest weekly update, Greg Fell, the city’s public health director, warned that although the infection rate is falling and hospitals are probably past the peak of the latest wave, the ‘room for manoeuvre remains pretty small’.

"The cohorts in critical care are younger than you might imagine, so there’s a significant number of people aged 45-65 in critical care,” he said.

Sheffield's Covid death toll rises as hospital admissions since pandemic began hit 4,000

"So anyone who thinks this is only an illness of the very elderly is mistaken. It’s a disease that can affect younger people as well and affects younger people really quite seriously.”

Mr Fell revealed that the Kent variant of the virus accounts for 70 per cent of cases being detected in Sheffield and because it is more transmissible ‘our level of vigilance becomes even more important’.

The 23 Sheffield areas with the lowest coronavirus rates of infection

He said there were two other variants of concern, from South Africa and Brazil, and to his knowledge neither was in Sheffield at the moment but ‘that might not last forever’.

Looking ahead he said he expects to see a ‘very gradual easing of restrictions’ this spring but restrictions will remain in place for ‘some time to come’.

Around a third of Covid patients thought to experience PTSD symptoms after being on a ventilator

He added that he expects this summer to be similar to last summer, though he said it is possible there will be another surge next autumn into winter.

The latest figures show that during the week ending February 5, there were 1,019 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Sheffield, giving a weekly infection rate of 174.2 – down from 230.7 the previous week.