Covid-19 in Greater Manchester: seven things we learned from the latest data as rates rise in all 10 boroughs

Greater Manchester is currently facing a rapidly-changing picture when it comes to Covid-19.

The latest data shown at a press briefing from the city-region’s elected mayor Andy Burnham on Wednesday (5 January) revealed significant increases in case rates and hospitalisation figures.

Here are seven things we learned from the most up-to-date numbers.

Case rates are now at unprecedented levels

The Greater Manchester case rate has climbed almost five-fold in the last few weeks, from 454.7 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending 10 December to the latest figure of 2,069.9 cases per 100,00 residents for the week up to 31 December.

All 10 boroughs have seen significant increases, with the lowest figure now being 1,836.3 cases per 100,00 people in Manchester.

Mr Burnham said: “These are case numbers at a level we just haven’t seen anything like thus far in the pandemic.

“These are way above anything we’ve seen before.”

Case rates among over-60s have climbed a lot too

In the same time period, from the week ending 10 December to the one up to New Year’s Eve, case rates among the over-60s in Greater Manchester have risen almost 10-fold.

The latest figure for older residents is 1,302.5 cases per 100,000 people.

It is a very similar picture over the last four weeks across the 10 boroughs of the city-region.

There have been increases in cases among the working-age population

The heat maps shown at Mr Burnham’s press conferences currently mainly show black due to the scale of the current case rates.

Nevertheless, he said there were notable increases in rates among the working-age population, with slight drop-offs for 0-to-15-year-olds in boroughs such as Oldham and Tameside.

Case numbers in care homes have risen as well

The latest data showed 4.7% of Greater Manchester’s care home residents either had confirmed cases of Covid-19 or were showing symptoms in the week ending 5 January.

This had risen from 2.3% in the week ending 29 December and 0.9% for the week before that.

Mr Burnham said the situation with care homes is being monitored carefully.

Hospitalisations have increased

Mr Burnham said the picture for Greater Manchester’s hospitals also now shows “a considerable change”.

In the week up to 3 January, 392 people were admitted to hospital having had a confirmed case in the 14 days prior to going in.

This increased from 199 in the week up to 27 December.

In-patient diagnoses also went up, from 331 in the week up to 27 December to 778 in the latest week.

The number of beds occupied by people with Covid-19 has almost doubled in the space of a week, from 531 on 27 December to 1,020 on 3 January.

But intensive care bed occupancy levels remain stable

The large rise in people in hospital with Covid-19 has not translated into spikes in patients requiring intensive care or higher dependency beds.

There were 54 people with the novel coronavirus in such units on 3 January.

That was an increase of just one from the 53 on 27 December.

Mr Burnham said the situation was “interesting”, but warned it could take time for people to move from general wards in hospitals to those treating more seriously-ill patients.

He said it is a situation Greater Manchester will continue closely watching.

An ‘amazing job’ has been done on the vaccination programme

The latest stats show that as of 3 January more than two million first doses of a Covid-19 vaccine and 1.2m booster jabs have been given out across Greater Manchester.

Mr Burnham said the current case rates had actually hindered the vaccine programme slightly but praised the job everyone involved had done.

He said: “These figures reflect an amazing job by so many people.

“The booster programme has been hit by people not showing up for appointments, but that could be a reflection of the higher numbers of cases we’ve experienced which has disrupted the roll-out to some degree.”

Overall 76% of all adults in Greater Manchester have had two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 52% have received their boosters.

The mayoral Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon urged people to: “Get a booster”.