'Covid deaths and case rates are falling in Luton,' says director of public health

More work still needs to be done to maintain the downward momentum, Lucy Hubber told a health and well-being board meeting.

"The good news is our rates are reducing in Luton," she said.

"Since I last presented to the board, we've seen a really dramatic change in our case rates.

"As of yesterday (Tuesday), we're down to 284 cases per 100,000.

"Last time we were in the 900s. We're beginning to see a reduction in our positivity rate.

"Previously I shared my concerns that we retained a very high positivity rate. It remains high. It's 11 per cent.

"That means we're in a position where, if restrictions were lifted, we've still got quite a large transmission of Covid in our community.

"So we can't rest and just assume the rates will continue to decline.

"It's through the good work and support and of our community, and the close following of the requirements of lockdown that we're seeing these reductions."

The Cabinet Office field team returned to Luton for a two-day visit at the start of the month, the board heard, having previously come to the town in July.

They "went out with our enforcement teams on a rainy evening", and went to testing centres and a vaccination centre," added the director of public health.

"They wanted to get that quality information, the atmospherics of the area, rather than just being presented with reports.

"The main finding is the Covid response in Luton has been innovative, rapid and agile.

"That has been supported by the excellent partnership working across the whole of the Luton system.

"One thing they noted was the high case rates we've experienced in Luton aren't down to non-compliance."

Their observations "put a question back at national level on how to support places such as Luton, which have these built-in challenges over Covid compliance", she explained.

"These include people unable to work from home and struggling to self-isolate in their own households.

"The vaccination doesn't just stop people getting the disease. It can help us reduce the amount of virus people get so they're not as poorly, and it can reduce the transmission.

"The vaccination programme is going to be critical in helping us drive down that serious illness which leads to death from Covid.

"I'm pleased to say the Luton and Dunstable is reporting lower numbers of people with Covid presenting at hospital.

"And we're beginning to see the death rate reduce," she said. "It's still distressingly high.

"We would clearly like to move back to the position in the summer where we had a long period with no deaths.

"We're on the right trajectory to achieving this again, and the vaccination is really critical in that."

Chief executive of the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust David Carter said: "Our numbers are definitely on the decline.

"The in-patients are around 100, whereas we were up to about 160 at the peak of this wave.

"The death rate is coming down, although it's relatively slowly as the numbers of patients in critical care tend to have a little lag, but it's going in the right direction."