Somerset Covid case rate above national average

The Somerset NHS Foundation Trust runs Taunton's Musgrove Park hospital

High Covid rates in Somerset remain "a challenge" as cases become some of the "fastest rising" in the UK.

Public health officials said the area's coronavirus figures within the last week are above the national average.

North Somerset saw 692 cases per 100,000 people and South Somerset had 930 cases per 100,000 people within the last week.

According to NHS and Public Health England, the country average was 465 cases per 100,000 people.

Somerset health officials said people must remain "cautious"

In response, Somerset deputy director of Public Health Lou Woolway urged people to stay cautious and "sensible".

"I think we all know more people than we've ever known who have had Covid in the last few weeks," she said.

"One of the really key important messages is not to go out and about if you have any symptoms.

"So if you are coughing or spluttering, whether it is Covid or a cold or any other infectious disease, stay home."

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Somerset NHS Clinical Commissioning Group member James Rimmer said the higher than average figure "remains a challenge".

"What is really interesting is the numbers of Covid patients are rising fastest in the South West," he said.

"Somerset is one of the three or four trusts, particularly Musgrove, with the fastest rising cases."

'Very different picture'

But Somerset County Council's Public Health officer Alison Bell said most of the Covid-positive patients in Somerset hospital's are there for other things.

"Many of them will have come into the hospital incubating an infection that they didn't catch in the hospital," she said.

"We look for cases by testing people regularly. But what that means is, we find lots of people with Covid.

"At the moment we have got about 130 or 150 people in hospitals, not because of Covid, but incidentally discovered as having Covid.

"None of them are in intensive care. It's a very different picture than previous."