A HIGH number of Covid cases in schools across Worcester have been blamed for a surge in cases across the city in the past fortnight.
County health chiefs have put the finger on cases in schools being behind the rise which has seen Worcester record a staggering 31 per cent weekly increase late last month.
After recording a high of 590 cases, the city appears to have spiked with 648 cases as figures released on Monday (December 6) show the latest figure to be 620 cases, a figure only exceeded locally by neighbouring Wychavon with 655 cases.
In comparison, Malvern recorded just 325 cases, Bromsgrove recorded 491 cases with Redditch at the bottom of the chart with 437 while Wyre Forest reported 434 cases in the past week.
While the cases remain high, Worcester’s figure is dwarfed by figues from Shropshire and Stoke on Trent with 1,742 and 1,311 cases in the past week respectively.
The West Midlands list is again topped by Birmingham as while the Second City saw a fall compared to last week there were still 3,588 positive Covid tests recorded.
It comes as the Government suggested early indications showed the Omicron variant of coronavirus is ‘more transmissible’ than Delta.
There are currently more than confirmed cases of the highly-mutated Omicron variant in the UK
Dr Kathryn Cobain, director of Public Health for Worcestershire said, “We are currently seeing very high COVID rates in school aged children in Worcester.
“It is important that children and young people continue to take regular lateral flow tests, and get a PCR test if they are displaying symptoms or their LFT is positive.”
