Corby remains on government Covid-19 watchlist for third week

Corby has appeared on the government's coronavirus watchlist for the third week running as the borough continues to experience a high rate of new cases.

According to the government's weekly national coronavirus surveillance report, Corby had a rate of 50.8 cases per 100,000 people for the week to September 13, an upwards trend and well above England's overall average of 33.8 cases per 100,000 people.

The high rate means the government has marked Corby as an 'area of concern' on its local authority watchlist for areas of enhanced support and concern.

This is the government's second-tier watchlist as the worst affected local authorities are on the intervention list for places currently under additional lockdown rules.

This week's rate of confirmed cases in Corby is actually higher than the bottom 11 local authorties currently under additional intervention, including Lancaster which had a rate of 22.9 new cases per 100,000 people in the past week.

While many residents in Corby and elsewhere across Northamptonshire have struggled to get tests this week, the government's surveillance report shows the borough has the highest average rates of testing out of the local authorities on the concern watchlist.

Corby has a seven day moving average of 273.5 individuals tested per 100,000 people, higher than any of the other 13 local authorities on the list.

Kettering was added to the concern list at the same time as Corby on Friday, September 4 but was removed last week and has not been added again this week.

However, according to the government's coronavirus data available here, Kettering is currently experiencing a higher overall seven-day average of new cases at 5.3 cases, compared to an overall seven-day average of 4.3 cases in Corby.

In Wellingborough, the seven-day average of new cases is 3.4 and in East Northants it is 2.1.

Northampton remains on the same list as Corby, but with a lower rate of new weekly cases per 100,000 people at 42.6.

There will be a local press conference with Northamptonshire's public health officials later today.

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