THERE has been a small rise in the number of coronavirus cases confirmed in the past week across Devon and Cornwall.

The figures show that 29 new cases have been confirmed across the region in the past seven days in both pillar 1 data from tests carried out by the NHS and pillar 2 data from commercial partners, compared to 23 new cases confirmed last week.

It means the average number of cases being confirmed across the two counties each day has risen to 4.14 from 3.28, although not all of the newly confirmed cases related to recent infections.

Of the 29 new cases, 17 of them had the specimen recorded in the previous seven days (between July 10 and July 16), with 12 of them being more ‘historical’ cases, including one from early April.

The previous seven days (July 3 to July 9) had seen 27 cases confirmed by data of specimen, with 16 of the cases having been confirmed in the week leading up to July 10, with the week between June 26 and July 2) seeing 28 cases confirmed.

In the last seven days, there have been five cases confirmed in Cornwall, the last from July 14, three in Torbay, the last from July 15, and two in Plymouth, the last on from July 13 by the date of specimen. The previous seven days saw six, one and four cases respectively.

In Devon, 19 cases have been confirmed in the last week, with four in East Devon (last from July 14), five in Exeter (last from July 12), one in the South Hams (July 13), three in Teignbridge (last from July 13), three in Torridge (all from July 9), and one in West Devon (from April 13) by date of specimen. No new cases in Mid Devon or North Devon were added in the last week.

Across the whole of the South West, there have been, 54 cases have been confirmed in the last seven days, down from 74 that had been confirmed for the previous seven day period last week, and 101 in total with backdating of cases, and with all 29 of the districts in the region, which stretches from Cornwall to Dorset and Gloucestershire, reporting an average of less than two new cases a day.

Across the South West, the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has dropped by a quarter in the previous week and has halved in a fortnight, going from 48 on July 3, down to 33 on July 10, and 24 as of July 17. No-one was admitted to hospital having tested positive for coronavirus yesterday in the South West and no-one is currently on a mechanical ventilator.

Torridge remains the district in England with the lowest positive case infection rate of anywhere in England per 100,000 population, with the South Hams 3rd, North Devon 4th, West Devon 5th, East Devon 8th, Teignbridge 9th, Cornwall 10th, Exeter 15th, Torbay 22nd, Plymouth 38th, and Mid Devon 40th out of the 315 English council districts.

Torridge has also had the fewest number of cases of any of the districts, with West Devon 2nd, and the South Hams and North Devon also in the bottom five.

In total, Torridge has had just 53 positive cases, with 72 in West Devon, 99 in the South Hams, 119 in North Devon, 206 in Mid Devon, 209 in Teignbridge, 215 in East Devon, 239 in Exeter, 276 in Torbay, 663 in Plymouth and 899 in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

The COVID-19 cases are identified by taking specimens from people and sending these specimens to laboratories around the UK to be tested. If the test is positive, this is a referred to as a lab-confirmed case.

Confirmed positive cases are matched to ONS geographical area codes using the home postcode of the person tested.

The data is now shown by the date the specimen was taken from the person being tested and while it gives a useful analysis of the progression of cases over time, it does mean that the latest days’ figures may be incomplete.

Cases received from laboratories by 12:30am are included in the counts published that day. While there may have been new cases of coronavirus confirmed or people having tested positive, those test results either yet to reach PHE for adding to the dataset or were not received in time for the latest daily figures to be published.