The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases fell by a quarter in the week to 7 November. There were 2,119 cases, down by 716 (25.3%) compared to the week before.

There has been a notable decline in cases among younger age groups. This has contributed to an overall decline in cases, taking the infection rate to 322.4 cases per 100,000 for the week, below the national average.

This follows additional Covid measures being introduced in Cambridgeshire to control rising infections. Cambridge and Peterborough have been an “Enhanced Response Area” (ERA) since 1 November. The ERA status will apply for at least five weeks. It is designed to help avoid a situation in which NHS hospitals face “unsustainable pressure”.

ERA status means that local authorities will receive support to accelerate the vaccine roll-out for those aged 12-15, increase the rates of vaccination in areas with the lowest uptake, and accelerate booster vaccinations for eligible groups. It also means that meetings will be held with the Department for Education to discuss the possible introduction of additional measures to control infections in schools.

Meanwhile there have been important changes made to the University’s asymptomatic testing programme following decreasing participation rates.

For the next two weeks the asymptomatic testing programme will only be screening half of participating students each week i.e. students from 50% of testing pools will be invited to provide swabs in the week commencing 15 November, and students from the other 50% of testing pools will be invited to provide swabs in the week commencing 22 November. This means that half of all participating testing pools from each college will take part each week.

Last week (8-14 November) there were 15 positive cases identified by University testing.