How Sheffield went from area of concern to the brink of local lockdown in a month

Greg Fell, director of public health, presented various data in a full council meeting and said in the past seven days up to October 3 Sheffield was recording an average of 237 positive cases a day and the age profile of those testing positive had shifted to 28.

He said: “Epidemiologists nationally have been predicting this for quite some time, numbers have started to go up and there is no doubt that is to do with the restart of school and university.

“The exponential growth is in 18-24 year olds, many of whom are students but this isn't all students, it just so happens Sheffield is a very big university town therefore there is very steep growth in that cohort.

“The concerning thing is it is beginning to creep back into older age groups. Most young people will be quite well, my concern is the creep back up from 18 to mid 40s back up into the 60s and beyond - they are at much higher risk of severe illness. That is unstoppable. It is of great concern."

He said there was a sustained increase week on week in the number of people being hospitalised and put on ventilated beds and that we are beginning to see Covid recorded on death certificates again following a period without this.

Mr Fell added there was a faster growth in cases in more deprived parts of the city.

Going forward he said it would be a 'difficult autumn' and they would 'intensify' efforts in prevention, management of individual outbreaks, enforcement and messaging but there are no plans to change the current strategy.

Compared to other parts of the country, Sheffield is two to three weeks behind West Yorkshire which is two to three weeks behind Greater Manchester, although Mr Fell said this was 'changing quickly'.

Sheffield is currently in the 'enhanced support' category. On on local lockdown, Mr Fell said: "There is lots of talk everywhere about lockdowns. If government changes its view of Sheffield, it will change its view."