“The number of deaths in Tendring has been tragically high"
Cases of COVID-19 are dropping and there is a reduction in case rates.
This has been a truly terrible disease and Tendring and its people have suffered horribly over the last few months.
That is from the Director of Wellbeing, Public Health & Communities at Essex County Council who told us why there's been such a high number of deaths in the area.
568 people have died within 28 days of a positive test.
Reasons include Tendring having well-documented areas of deprivation and an older population.
Dr Mike Gogarty said:
“This has been a truly terrible disease and Tendring and its people suffered horribly over the last few months.
“The number of deaths in Tendring has been tragically high and there are a number of reasons for this.
“First there is the age of the people of Tendring. As there are more older people, sadly we would expect to see more deaths as covid is particularly harmful in older people. A better comparison can be made looking at the age standardised death rate which accounts for age and when we do this the rates in Tendring, while higher than average, are not excessively high.
“Tendring has well-documented areas of deprivation and this too has impacted levels of Covid-19 deaths. While still unacceptably high the death rate in Tendring is lower than one would expect given the level of deprivation and population age.
“Finally, Tendring has around twice the number of people who are in residential and care homes than the national average and this group where particularly badly impacted on during the pandemic. The numbers of deaths at smaller levels are hard to interpret but are likely to be linked to the wider position in Tendring."
Dr. Gogarty told us that, at the moment cases are dropping and Tendring is seeing a gratifying reduction in case rates.
He said this is entirely due to the way the local people are observing and adhering to lockdown and the rates may increase if lockdown is removed too fast or people stop observing it.
He added:
“I would urge anyone who has been invited but has not had the vaccine to contact their GP and arrange for a vaccination. Unless you have the vaccine you will not be safe from Covid-19 in the future.
“It is essential as restrictions do relax, that people isolate if they or their contacts test positive and it is important to get tested if you have symptoms. Home testing or testing at local centres is now much more widely available and people, especially those with children at schools are encouraged to get tested regularly, you can order home tests by post.
“I would also encourage people to continue to try and stay two metres apart from each other where they can, to minimise the chances for the virus to spread.”