A quarter of ALL Cornwall's Covid cases have occurred within the last month
Public health officials say Omicron is driving up infection rates
Last updated 11th Jan 2022
Cornwall has seen a quarter of all its Covid cases through the pandemic within the last month.
That is the message from experts as they say the virus is still a wild card and very much embedded here.
We are being warned that we are still not at the peak of this wave of coronavirus, with more cases to come over the next few weeks.
Ruth Goldstein is from the public health team at Cornwall Council and says the new variant is driving up our rates.
She said: "We've got a really, really, steep curve going upwards at the moment and that shows what has happened because of the Omicron variant. We know that it is really, really transmissible, it's so easy to catch it's ridiculous, it's passed through families, work colleagues and social settings really quickly."
At the moment around 760 people in Cornwall are testing positive for Covid every day.
Ruth added: "That is a huge number compared to what we've had, and in fact we've actually had more cases in the last month of Covid, about a quarter of our cases for the whole two year pandemic have happened over just about the last month or so."
You can watch the full Covid-19 update from public health experts at Cornwall Council below...
It comes as tens of thousands of people in Cornwall have received a booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine in the last three weeks, new figures show.
Scientists told the Government boosters are highly effective against hospitalisation for older adults, with second booster jabs for the most vulnerable ruled out for now.
Data from the UK coronavirus dashboard shows 47,164 people received a booster or a third vaccine dose between December 20th and January 9th, bringing the total number of people in Cornwall to get a third shot to 348,834.
It means 66% of people aged 12 and over in the area have now had a booster, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.
Across the UK, 35.7 million people have now had a booster or third jab – 62% of over-12s.
Meanwhile, data from the UK Health Security Agency shows boosters are 90% effective against admission to hospital from the Omicron variant for the over-65s.
Protection for those with two doses dropped to about 70% after three months and to 50% after six months.
Professor Wei Shen Lim, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s chairman of Covid-19 immunisation, said the data emphasised the “value of a booster jab”.
He said: “The current data show the booster dose is continuing to provide high levels of protection against severe disease, even for the most vulnerable older age groups.
“For this reason, the committee has concluded there is no immediate need to introduce a second booster dose, though this will continue to be reviewed.”
As the highly infectious Omicron variant continues to spread, scientists are also looking into the possibility of reducing the isolation period for Covid-19 cases from seven to five days, to reduce the staffing crisis across sectors including health, education and public transport.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England would stick to Plan B, but testing would be increased in key sectors.
Current Plan B measures include the wider wearing of face masks, the mandatory use of Covid passes for access to large venues and a return to working from home.
Mr Johnson said: “We’ll act according to the science, as we always have.
“But what I would say to everybody is that Omicron is still out there, it’s incredibly contagious, everybody will know somebody who has had it – it can be pretty unpleasant."
He added a high proportion of those in intensive care units with Covid have not been vaccinated.
“It’s absolutely crucial that everybody gets their booster – it can make a huge difference," he said.