Still significant Covid-19 challenges in Corby warns public health boss

The county’s public health boss says there are still significant Covid-19 challenges in Corby as the town has the highest case rate in the county.

Lucy Wightman has warned people in the town still need to be vigilant about the virus, despite Corby coming off the government’s watch list last Friday. The case rate per 100,000 is 28, which compares to 17 in Northampton and 22 in Kettering.

At this morning’s (Oct 1) Covid-19 oversight meeting, referring to figures in the seven days up until September 20, the director of public health said she wanted to signal caution, despite rates slowing from a rapid case rise in August. She said for the size of the town the number of cases was significant. Since the pandemic began 531 Corby people have tested positive.

She said: “We do still have significant challenges locally – particularly in Corby at the moment but also we have an uptick in prevalence incidence in Northampton. Although pleasingly rates have come down – and compared to other areas we have seen the positive behaviour of the public and increased testing has started to quell a significant increase – we are not quite where we need to be in the long-term. And therefore if we are to sustain this more positive position we need people to act in the way they have been and comply with government guidance.”

She continued: “In Corby the number of cases for the size of population at 22, is an area of concern. And again Kettering and Wellingborough still have high case rates.

Although a reduction on the previous week, overall numbers are not where they need to be.”

She said despite the Northamptonshire case rate being below the national average this was due to a massive surge in cases in the North of England which appeared to make the Northamptonshire picture look better than it was.

She said: “If you look at the case rate per 100,00 in Corby it is 28. Initially the government were escalating areas where the case rate was 20 or above. So we do need to be mindful that the thresholds for tolerance around escalation have changed and therefore Corby may have been in a different position if this rate was identified a couple of weeks ago.

“(I) would like to see Kettering’s rate come down further than 22. So we continue to work with all of these areas to make sure locally we are happy with the picture, even if nationally it looks better than some areas.”

The Corby Village and Weldon community has the highest case rate in the county over the past 28 days until September 20, with Corby North, Corby town centre, Corby Kingswood and the Rowlett, Gretton and Cottingham areas all listing in the top 10 areas where covid positive cases were highest in Northants.

There have been 108 positive cases in the Corby village and Weldon area since the pandemic began.

In September there were 28,025 tests carried out across the county.

Lucy Wightman also appealed for people who were contacted by the local testing service to comply with requests for information sharing as she said ‘it is the only way we are going to get on top of covid’.