THERE has been a further small drop in the seven-day Covid-19 infection rate for Maldon district in the latest figures released by Essex County Council.

The county council currently releases a new county summary of the statistics every Thursday afternoon, comparing the seven days up until the previous Thursday with the seven days before that. The reporting gap of one week is to help ensure accuracy of the figures.

In the seven days up to Thursday, 5 November, there were 52.4 confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 population. This compares with 58.6 for the seven days to Thursday, 29 October.

In the seven days up to 29 October, there were 1, 586 confirmed new cases in the Essex county area, which excludes Thurrock and Southend.

The current weekly case rate for Essex (again, up to 5 November) stands at 106.5 per 100,000, a slight increase from 100.1 the previous week.

As of 5 November, the highest weekly case rates were in Brentwood and Epping Forest, with rates of 189.6 and 164.8 respectively.

Covid-19 Hospitals admissions in Essex

As of Tuesday, 10 November, there were 213 beds occupied by confirmed Covid-19 patients in Essex hospital trusts. This equates to 7.6 per cent of trust capacity and indicates some stability, as there were 210 Covid-19 hospital in-patients one week earlier.