Birmingham City Council’s latest general update can be seen here, and the dashboard of Covid-19 information for the week ending 16th April can be seen here.
The impact of the national lockdown continues to reduce case numbers, with the percentage of positive tests and the overall rate of cases continuing to fall in all ages and ethnic groups.
Across Birmingham, the number of cases has fallen by 85 cases compared with previous week. The average daily Covid admissions to Birmingham’s hospitals has fallen further, to around 7 new cases a day. Moseley’s case rate has dropped by a further 62% since the previous fortnight.
The highest case rates remain in secondary school children and we’re reminded that testing for schools and families is vital, as is following the rules since we know that infection rates in younger age groups can spread into older age groups unless we stay on top of cases.
Most of the identified contacts of cases are still within the same household or household visitors. Spread often happens in the household but it isn’t inevitable, and www.germdefence.org can help.
Testing rates remain decreased this week; partly because there was less testing in schools during the Easter holiday closures, but this doesn’t explain the full drop in testing, and we’re encouraged to continue being tested. All adults who don’t have symptoms should now be testing twice a week using the rapid lateral flow tests. Testing for asymptomatic individuals is now available across the city and you can also order test kits directly from the government for free by post or find a local collection site to pick up tests.
Our full description of the current rules at this stage of lockdown easing can be seen here, and a poster summarising the rules is here.