I haven’t had my flowing locks trimmed by a professional since before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier today I corrected that oversight at Visions Unisex Hair Salon in the centre of Camelford:
My by now somewhat unruly coiffure was professionally tamed by Jess. Then as I was paying I couldn’t help but notice this picture of Jess, Tracey and Visions’ proprietor Kerrie:
More about the Visions’ team’s charitable activities in due course, but having pledged myself to support their current fund raising effort on behalf of the Marie Curie cancer charity we had an animated discussion about the difficulties of running a small business in rural North Cornwall in the current economic climate. By way of example Kerrie told me that it’s hard to keep your head above water in the current climate, and two other hairdressers in Camelford have closed in the last six months. Which no doubt explains why the first number I called this morning is now unobtainable.
After leaving Visions I crossed the road to record this video, which is now available on Twitter:
If I’d had more time I would have popped into the Camelford Conservative Club to ask them what their energy bills were last winter, what those bills are now, and what budget they have allocated for the purchase of energy over the coming winter.
The UK Government is now only updating its Covid-19 Dashboard once a week. Here’s last week’s Cornwall wide overview:
The effectiveness of the current Covid-19 testing regime is certainly open to question, but an increase of almost 25% in a week certainly gives some cause for concern.
Zooming in to North Cornwall, there is currently a “hot spot” of cases just up the A39 “Atlantic Highway” from here in the Poundstock MSOA:
There are currently fewer hotspots with a weekly case rate over 100 per 100,000 population in West Cornwall:
Recently there has also been a slight increase in Covid admissions to the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust:
This analysis suggests that hospital admissions across South West England as a whole have also started to increase:
A mixed picture for hospital admissions with COVID. 7-day average for England is down 5% week-on-week. Implied R estimate rising towards 1.0.
Regionally, it’s varied. Up 22% in SW, down 11-15% in NE/NW/Mids. Flatter in Lon, East and SE.
— COVID-19 Actuaries Response Group (@COVID19actuary) September 15, 2022
“Implied R estimate rising towards 1.0”. We await next week’s data with much interest.
[Edit – September 22nd]
The case rates across the county on September 17th don’t look alarming in the least:
However the same cannot be said for hospital admissions:
What could possibly have caused that sudden spike in admissions on September 19th?
[Edit – September 29th]
His Majesty’s Government have released the latest weekly Covid-19 statistics, and they do not look encouraging for Cornwall. Let’s start with the case rates on September 24th, although as we shall see the current lack of exhaustive testing means they are a long way from the whole story:
The weekly case rate per 100,000 population has almost double in one week across the county as a whole. Here in North(ish) Cornwall the current “hot spot” is Callington with a case rate of over 200. There is also a wide area with over 100 cases per 100,000:
Things don’t look quite so bad further west, but Camborne East is also in the over 200 club:
Here is the most surprising sets of graphs. Hospital admissions and in-patients suffering from Covid-19 for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust:
The data is incomplete for the past few days, but the most recent wave of Covid-19 in Kernow has already reached the level of the July peak.
[Edit – October 6th]
The weekly Covid-19 case rate per 100,000 population across Cornwall has crept over the 100.0 mark this week:
Here in North(ish) Cornwall the current hotspot is still Callington, with a case rate over 200.0 on October 1st. Liskeard is not far behind:
Further west parts of Truro are also dark blue on the Government’s map:
After the surge over the previous two weeks hospital admissions and in-patients suffering from Covid-19 have stabilised at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust:
[Edit – October 13th]
The weekly Covid-19 case rate across Cornwall rose by 20% last week and is now over 125 per 100,000 population:
Torpoint in South East Cornwall is the first MSOA in the county to reach a case rate of over 400 in the current wave of the Covid-19 pandemic:
In North(ish) Cornwall St. Neot & St. Cleer tops the current leader board with a rate of almost 225.
Further west St. Day is somewhat higher, with a rate of 263.8:
Hospital admissions and in-patients suffering from Covid-19 at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust are slowly declining:
[Edit – October 20th]
The weekly Covid-19 case rate across Cornwall fell last week. It is now just over 100 per 100,000 population:
Torpoint is still a Covid-19 hotspot, but the case rate has reduced to 250.3. Here in North Cornwall the case rate in Bodmin East has increased to 236.2:
Further west Mevagissey has a rate of 186.2:
Despite the falling case rate the number of in-patients at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust suffering from Covid-19 is increasing once again:
Hospital admissions due to Covid-19 here in Cornwall have been reducing, but it looks as though that is about to change. Compare admissions into Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust hospitals over the last 3 months:
with those across South West England as a whole:
Admissions across the West Country are now at their highest level for over 12 months, and the (delayed) numbers in Cornwall have now started to rise as well. As indeed have the nationwide figures:
[Edit – March 21st]
The comments below show the continuing increase in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations over the last couple of weeks. After a break over the weekend today’s data has just been released. Here are the nationwide numbers:
Here are the rolling weekly case numbers per 100,000 population across Cornwall as a whole:
As you can see, cases in Cornwall 5 days ago are currently running 50% higher than the current nationwide average. Zooming in further several MSOA’s have case rates over 1,600, and the rates in both Saltash and Par are over 2,000:
Further west the case rate in Helston is now over 1,800 :
I discovered at around 9:55 this morning that Julie Skentelbery was going to be interviewing Scott Mann, our local Conservative MP here in North Cornwall, on her BBC Radio Cornwall programme a few minutes later.
More in hope than expectation I dialled the number that had just been announced and mentioned that I had already asked Scott some questions about the recent power cuts via email, but had yet to receive an answer.
Advance to around 19 minutes 45 seconds into the recording of Julie’s show on BBC Sounds to discover what happened thereafter:
Confirmed Covid-19 cases across Cornwall have been slowly decreasing recently, but that is about to change. Here is the current national case rate graph:
Of course we don’t have many towns here in North Cornwall, but a few miles up the A39 from Davidstow the (5 days delayed) rolling weekly case rate in the Bude MSOA has just crept above 800 again:
[Edit – December 29th]
After a break in reporting over the Christmas holiday the UK Government is issuing Covid-19 data again. There has been a big jump in UK wide cases today, no doubt partly due to some catching up after Xmas:
Plan A for today involved getting in the water and out back before said swell arrived.
When that failed to materialise plan B involved heading for spot M with video recorder and tripod in rucsack.
When that failed to materialise plan C involved heading for high tide Crackington Haven. When that did materialise here are the sights that met our sore eyes:
Finally, for the moment at least, the almost imperceptible damage to my left arm after the almost undetectable injection of what ultimately turned out to be a dose of the Moderna mRNA Covid-19 vaccine for my booster jab:
Schools have gone back and the clocks change in a couple of weeks, but Covid-19 is still with us. In actual fact it’s on the increase again. Both nationally:
and here in the Camelford MSOA, where we now find ourselves in the top DHSC category with a case rate of 889.8 per 100,000 people per week:
Just down the A39 “Atlantic Highway” in Wadebridge the rate is now over 1,000.
Further west the top spot goes to Camborne West, with a case rate of 946.4:
As you can see from the maps there are several other area across Cornwall in the 800+ category, whilst across Cornwall as a whole the average case rate is 539.5, an increase of 15.6% compared to a week ago:
[Edit – October 22nd]
Further to the BBC report in the comments below, the The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust is “tweeting” much the same story:
Pressure on the ambulance service and Emergency Department is intense tonight. If it's not a 999 emergency but you need urgent care, please call 111 first. #HelpUsHelpYoupic.twitter.com/3DmHGeWpn7
The UK Government statistics show Covid-19 cases still rising quickly across the nation as a whole:
Across Cornwall as a whole the rolling weekly case rate is still almost unchanged at 546.8 per 100,000 population:
Here in the Camelford area the case rate has fallen to 528.3. However the rate in Bude has risen to 924.6, whilst Bodmin West has fallen slightly to 954.1:
Further south Par is now home to an outbreak with a case rate over 1,000:
MPs are asking for help from the government to deal with a “perfect storm” in the health system.
There have been more than 100 patients waiting to be seen in an emergency department designed for 40, and 25 ambulances waiting outside.
The hospital trust’s medical director said the situation was improving slowly.
Steve Double, MP for Newquay and St Austell, said: “It is regrettably a sort of perfect storm of a number of factors coming together that is creating this unprecedented level of demand on our system.”
Mr Double said he had spoken with health minister Ed Argar who was “asking for further details to see exactly what is going on and what further help could be made available”.
Cherilyn Mackrory, MP for Truro and Falmouth, said she was “acutely aware of the current situation”.
She added: “Whatever the hospital need to alleviate this pressure, I will do to try and help them.
The school summer holiday season is drawing to a close, and August Bank Holiday is almost upon us. Matt Hancock was one of many hundreds of thousands to travel down here from up country earlier this month:
The effect on Covid-19 cases here in North Cornwall is all too evident. The Camelford and Davidstow area is now in the top category for cases:
However we are still a long way behind Newquay East, which today broke the 2,000 cases per 100,000 people per week barrier:
Here once again is the “heat map” showing the age distribution of cases across Cornwall as a whole for the current wave of Covid-19:
The upper limit on the 7 day “rolling rate” legend really requires updating. In the 15-19 age group the rate has now reached 5,080.6. For 20-24 year olds it is 2,419.4.
We commented yesterday on the current outbreak of Covid-19 cases further west in Cornwall than Davidstow, and suggested that the cause may be the recent G7 Summit in St. Ives, which finished on Sunday.
Here is yesterday’s map:
Together with a “heatmap” showing the age distribution of cases across Cornwall as a whole:
The far right of the image suggests that during this so called “third wave” of Covid-19 cases, the 15 to 24 age range has been the hardest hit. Possibly that’s because this section of the population has yet to be vaccinated?
The official data for June 10th have also just been released, and this is how the latest map looks:
Truro, Redruth and Mevagissey are no longer pure white, as they were on June 9th. A total of 27 cases in St. Ives doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s an enormous percentage increase on the previous 7 days.
All the current Davidstow parish councillors have been re-elected without opposition, so we have had to look further afield for some election day excitement. On Thursday instead of our usual gentle stroll to the other side of Tremail we had to take a drive in Lisa, our trusty Nissan LEAF electric vehicle:
We spent yesterday “live Tweeting” the election results from across Cornwall as they arrived, including this “shock news” from our recently boundary changed local district:
Now officially confirmed.
Full disclosure: I didn't vote for Barry, so personally I'm gutted!
What would the result have been with a single transferable vote, like the Devon & Cornwall #PoliceCommisioner election?
What passes for #democracy in the once United Kingdom delivers a majority of seats around the @CornwallCouncil table to @Conservatives in return for a mere 37% of the votes.
With a 37% share of the “popular vote” the Conservative Party now has a 7 seat majority on the “redistricted” Cornwall Council. With a 9% share of the vote the Green Party has but a single seat. Personally I cannot comprehend what the farmers and fisherfolk of Kernow were thinking when they voted for someone sporting a true blue rosette.
