Covid-19: Luton has 'alarming rise' in number of cases

Luton Council urged residents to "stay at home as much as possible"

The number of Covid-19 cases in Luton is rising at an "alarming rate", according to the local council.

In the week to 5 November, there were 256.3 cases per 100,000 people in the town, above the average for England.

Luton Council warned that infection rates could "soon reach 300 per 100,000", and they had seen "deaths significantly increase over the last seven days".

The authority urged residents to "stay at home as much as possible".

Last month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that Luton, having come out of local restrictions, was "the way forward" after "people pulled together to depress the virus".

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But the council said what lay behind the recent rise in cases was "of great concern".

"Cases in the over-60s age group now are over 200 per 100,000," said a council statement.

"Throughout the pandemic, data has shown older people to be consistently at greater risk of serious complications if they are unfortunate enough to contract the disease."

The council said the rise in deaths "will start showing in our published data in the coming weeks"

Councillor Khtija Malik, portfolio holder for public health, and the interim director of public health Lucy Hubber, said the town had "shown we were able stop the spread of coronavirus in the past and we can do so again".

"The heart-wrenching deaths of the last week are not statistics. They are family and friends, leaving behind them the deepest of sorrows.

"At this time of crisis we must all pull together again, stay at home, keep all social interactions outside our household to an absolute minimum and protect our community and the ones we love."

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