London 'may have passed peak' as Covid cases fall in 14 boroughs
Tom WilliamsWednesday 13 Jan 2021 2:34 pm
London has seen a decline in Covid rates and hospital admissions (Pictures: Getty/PA/EPA)
Covid cases finally appear to have peaked in London, nearly four weeks after the city was first placed under tier four restrictions.
The latest figures showed 14 of the 32 London boroughs registered a decline in the number of new infections in the week to January 7.
But some severely affected parts of the city are still registering record high numbers of new cases.
New daily hospital admissions have also started to decline but the NHS in the capital is still struggling to treat thousands of new patients.
Richmond in south west London saw the biggest drop last week. Cases were down by 263 or 20%.
Bromley, Merton, Sutton and Kingston also registered drops in cases of more than 10% while the situation in Havering, which had been the worst affected borough, continued to improve.
Other areas including Tower Hamlets, Barnet, Redbridge, Hackney and Harrow saw smaller declines while cases in Bexley, Enfield and Wandsworth also appeared to have peaked.
London has been hit hard by the new mutant strain of Covid-19 since the middle of December. Ministers cancelled Christmas for people in the capital on December 19 and closed all non-essential shops.
Commuters getting on a Jubilee Line Underground train at Canning Town station (Picture: PA)
NHS Ambulance staff outside the Royal London hospital (Picture: EPA)
London boroughs where Covid cases are falling
Cases in the week to January 7:
Richmond: 1041 cases, down 263 (20.2%) with a rate of 525.7,
Bromley: 3051 cases, down 596 (16.3%) with a rate of 918,
Merton: 1832 cases, down 276 (13.1%) with a rate of 887,
Kingston: 1248 cases, down 172 (12.1%) with a rate of 703.1,
Havering: 2922 cases, down 395 (11.9%) with a rate of 1,125.8,
Sutton: 1964 cases, down 249 (11.3%) with a rate of 951.8,
Tower Hamlets 3718 cases, down 249 (6.3%) with a rate of 1,144.9,
Barnet 3778 cases, down 221 (5.5%) wth a rate of 954.4,
Redbridge 4115 cases, down 224 (5.2%) with a rate of 1,348.2,
Hackney and City of London 2556 cases, down 100 (3.8%) with a rate of 878.8,
Harrow 2303 cases, down 66 (2.8%) with a rate of 916.9,
Bexley 2916 cases, down 33 (1.1%) with a rate of 1,174.4,
Enfield 4017 cases, down 34 (0.8%) with a rate of 1,203.4,
Wandsworth 2497 cases, down 14 (0.6%) with a rate of 757.4.
Since then the city has been placed under further restrictions as part of the national lockdown which started more than a week ago on January 4.
The Covid-19 rate for the city as a whole dipped in the week to January 7 to 1,004.5 per 100,000, down from 1,116 on January 4.
But 18 boroughs are still seeing increases in cases including Barking and Dagenham, which is now the worst affected part of the city. There were 3279 cases in the eastern borough, up 19 or 0.6%.
Ealing saw the biggest jump with an increase of 21.3% with an extra 647 cases. Lambeth, Southwark and Brent also saw rises of more than 10% while the other boroughs saw single digit percentage increases.
London boroughs where Covid cases are rising
Camden: 1767 cases, up seven (0.4%) with a rate of 654.4,
Barking and Dagenham 3279 cases, up 19 (0.6%) with a rate of 1,540.1,
Westminster 1500 cases, up 20 (1.4%) with a rate of 574,
Hammersmith and Fulham 1374 cases, up 26 (1.9%) with a rate of 742.1,
Haringey 2803 cases, up 75 (2.7%) with a rate of 1,043.4,
Islington 1930 cases, up 63 (3.4%) with a rate of 796,
Greenwich 3102 cases, up 106 (3.5%) with a rate of 1,077.3,
Newham 4939 cases, up 217 (4.6%) with a rate of 1,398.6,
Waltham Forest 3167 cases, up 148 (4.9%) with a rate of 1,143.4,
Lewisham 3134 cases, up 151 (5.1%) with a rate of 1,024.7,
Croydon 4179 cases, up 253 (6.4%) with a rate of 1,080.7,
Kensington and Chelsea 1027 cases, up 75 (7.9%) with a rate of 657.8,
Hounslow 3097 cases, up 254 (8.9%) with a rate of 1,140.6,
Hillingdon 3179 cases, up 284 (9.8%) with a rate of 1,035.9,
Brent 3548 cases, up 361 (11.3%) with a rate of 1,075.9,
Southwark 3212 cases, up 357 (12.5%) with a rate of 1,007.4,
Lambeth 3140 cases, up 361 (13%) with a rate of 963.1,
Ealing 3689 cases, up 647 (21.3%) with a rate of 1,079.3.
People at Victoria tube station during the third lockdown (Picture: REUTERS)
A shopper passes a coronavirus advice sign at Borough Market, London, which has become the first outdoor space in the UK to legally enforce the wearing of face masks for all customers and stallholders. (Picture: PA Photo)
There were 15 boroughs with Covid rates that remained above 1,000 per 100,000 people. In contrast, over the summer, a rate of 20 per 100,000 was used as a barometer by the Government for when to consider imposing travel restrictions on foreign countries.
The seven-day rate for people aged 60 and over, who are more likely to be severely affected by the virus, is also still very high at 869.4 per 100,000.
There were 5,919 admissions of Covid patients to London hospitals in the week to January 10, the first drop in the seven day rate of admissions since December 2.
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However the 734 admissions recorded on January 10 meant this date was still among the 20 busiest days recorded since the start of the pandemic.
Many more patients are expected to be admitted in the next few weeks because of the record number of cases reported at the start of the month.
There were 7,606 coronavirus patients in London's hospitals as of January 12, 1,085 of them on ventilators.
The mayor Sadiq Khan last week declared a major incident in the city because the spread of the virus was 'out of control'.
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