COVID-19 cases across district slowly rise

At the time of publishing, St Albans had 38 confirmed coronavirus cases between March 6 to March 12, up 10 compared with the previous week.

Across St Albans district, there are now 26 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people. Last week, this number sat at just 19 cases per 100,00 residents, after three continuous weeks of falling numbers.

Although any rise in coronavirus cases is unwelcome, St Albans still remains below England's average area, which is now at 46 cases per 100,000, down from 50 last week.

A total of 7,698 cases have been recorded in St Albans up to March 16, since records began last year.

St Albans now has the second lowest amount of cases per 100,000 in Herts. Previously holding the top spot, it has given way to North Herts, which has 22 cases per 100,000 residents. St Albans follows closely behind with 26 per 100,000.

Neighbouring Welwyn Hatfield now 38 cases per 100,000, down by almost half since last week, where 67 cases per 100,000 were recorded. Hertsmere has 44 per 100,000, as well as 40 cases per 100,000 being recorded in Dacorum.

Across the district, 43,266 people have had the first dose of the vaccine as of March 7, according to NHS England data.

On March 17, government data states that, as of March 15, 2,442 people across Herts are registered to have died within 28 days of their first positive coronavirus test, with 303 of those hailing from St Albans district.

According to the government's coronavirus dashboard, 125,690 across the UK have now sadly died within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 as of March 16. 146,487 deaths have been recorded in the UK with COVID-19 mentioned as a cause of death on the death certificate as of March 5.

The UK’s R-number, which represents the rate of transmission, is now between 0.6 and 0.8, meaning the rate of transmission is declining across the whole of the UK as the R-number sits below one. In the East of England, the R-number continues to sit between 0.6 and 0.8 as of March 12.