This week, to 15 December, there were 2,804 new confirmed cases of COVID 19 in Somerset. Last week it was reported that the omicron variant was in Somerset. Yet whilst there has been a slight uptick in case numbers, for the moment, there is no sign of a surge. The next couple of weeks will be important in understanding just how rapidly the case load is expanding. And to what extent the omicron variant is changing the infection levels.

The table below tracks the overall weekly number of infections in Somerset in recent weeks.

• 2,804 to 15 December
• 2,521 to 8 December
• 2,534 to 1 December
• 2,399 to 24 November
• 2,570 to 17 November
• 2,283 to 10 November
• 3,166 to 3 November
• 4,342 to 27 October
• 4,687 to 20 October
• 2.195 to 13 October
• 2,260 to 6 October

This week a number of towns across the county has had a caseload over 500 per 100,000 population. Wells, Shepton, Crewkerne, Yeovil, Frome and Bridgwater were all over 500 per 100,000. The hotspot remains Yeovil with 286 cases, compared to last week’s 275. Frome recorded a bit of a surge with 200 new cases against 125 last week. Bridgwater too has seen a surge in case from 178 last week to 223 this week.

Before we go any further however, our usual health warning about the figures.  Unlike NHS data these numbers include care homes and incidences of COVID 19 “at home”. The data is prepared to 15 December for cases (although different dates are used for some of the other figures – for instance deaths are reported to 3 December). The reason for this delay is to keep the numbers accurate – or should we say as accurate as possible. The daily totals published by the NHS are subject to constant revision, as not unreasonably, the data is constantly being updated to improve accuracy. It is also worth noting that the SCC area does not include North Somerset (so Weston hospital) or BANES (So the RUH in Bath) both of which are separate administrative areas.

This week there were 5 deaths reported from our region, 4 in hospital and 1 in a care home. This appears to be at the same level as for the ;last couple of weeks.

The numbers in hospital with COVID in Somerset were similar also to last week. There are now between 40 and 50 people in either Musgrove or Yeovil hospitals.

The R number is still reported at 0.9-1.1 which as we’ve said before, is not that helpful. The trend appears to be stable and that is indicative of an R number of 1. So to be fair we could say the range quoted appears reasonable.

The vaccination of the under 18 cohort has now slowed to a standstill. Just 608 more young people in the 12-15 age bracket were vaccinated compared to 811 last week. This week just 110 in the 16-18 cohort were vaccinated.

There is much better news from the booster vaccination programme. 80-95% of the age cohorts over 70 have had their boosters already. Although only 5% of the under 50s have had a booster, in total 37% of our regions population have now been “boosted”.

As ever here is the full dataset so you can form your own conclusions: