Peterborough's director of public health urges residents to stick to lockdown rules as death rate for city rises to highest level

In January, government data shows there were 90 deaths that occurred within 28 days of a Covid-19 test in Peterborough compared to 57 in December. Both are the highest marks for a month since the pandemic began.

Peterborough currently sits 13th in the country for the highest rate of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people

MORE: These are the 15 areas in England with the highest Covid infection rates right nowMORE: More than half Peterborough COVID deaths during pandemic recorded in December and January

Today, Dr Liz Robin, Director of Public Health for Peterborough, said: "The number of cases of Coronavirus in December and January were the highest we have detected so far in the pandemic but that is the case nationally and regionally as well as in Peterborough. As many more people were infected with Covid-19, there was also a higher number of deaths.

"Although the number of cases of Coronavirus in Peterborough has now started to reduce slowly, we are still seeing a number of deaths on a weekly basis so it is vitally important that people continue to follow the rules to protect themselves and the people they care about. This includes making sure you are staying at home as much as possible, not inviting anyone into your home that you don't live with and reducing all non-essential contact with people you don't live with. It's also really important that people get a test if they have symptoms and take part in our rapid testing if they are having to leave home to go to work. We also need people to self-isolate if they have symptoms or if they test positive.

"If we can all commit to doing this, then rates of the virus will fall and the number of people admitted to hospital and the number who, sadly, are dying will reduce as well."

Since March last year, there have been 133.5 deaths per 100,000 among Peterborough residents which is lower than the East of England rate of 178.7 and England rate of 169.1 per 100,000.

The case rate has been steadily falling since January 15 - and now stands at 432 per 100,000 people - however, this is still a high rate compared to much of the country.

Earlier this month Dr Robin told The Peterborough Telegraph the reason Peterborough was seeing a higher number of cases than some other areas of the country was partly because 'many people in Peterborough are in front line jobs where they’re not able to work from home,' and many positive tests were among working age residents.