Health boss warning over rise in East Yorkshire Covid cases

East Riding Council's Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said more people were getting coronavirus as their vaccine protection begins to fade

Coronavirus cases are expected to increase in East Yorkshire over the coming weeks, a council meeting heard.

East Riding Council's Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said more people were getting coronavirus as their vaccine protection began to fade.

He added that hospital admissions and deaths were expected to rise by mid-July, but the size of the wave would be smaller than previous ones.

The county's current infection rate is estimated at around 2%.

"We're expecting more waves but they won't be as big because of our levels of immunity, Mr Kingdom said.

"Infections are rising in working-age groups because they had their third jabs in around November and December so the effectiveness is beginning to wane.

"Despite the increase in infections we're not yet seeing cases translate into big hospital numbers, the amount of patients with coronavirus in our hospitals is in the 20s to 30s.

"But if more working age people are catching coronavirus it will mean less staff are able to work, including care staff."

Mr Kingdom told councillors that Covid cases were on the rise

The latest government figures show that in the week commencing 3 June 15 people had a confirmed positive test result, an increase of 650% compared with the previous seven days.

Over the same period there were four deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test, a decrease of 33.3% compared with the previous week.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Kingdom told councillors that outbreaks had resumed in care homes, with 14 affected as of 13 June, compared with none a week ago.

"We're a lot better at spotting outbreaks where they do happen now, but people still need to take coronavirus seriously," he said.

"There's people who are still at risk from the virus, it hasn't gone away and it never will."