THE number of people in Wokingham borough who have had confirmed cases of coronavirus has now gone past 200.
New data was released by the Department of Health today as Dominic Raab confirmed that the UK would remain in lockdown for at least another three weeks.
“Today’s data shows that 327, 608 people in the UK have now been tested for the coronavirus; 103,093 people have tested positive,” he said.
“Sadly, of those with the virus, 13,729 have now died. These are heart-breaking losses for every family affected.
“And it reminds us exactly why we need to follow the social distancing guidance.”
He continued: “We still don’t have the infection rate down as far as we need to.
“As in other countries, we have issues with the virus spreading in some hospitals and care homes.
“In sum, the very clear advice we have received is that any change to our social distancing measures now would risk a significant increase in the spread of the virus. That would threaten a second peak of the virus, and substantially increase the number of deaths.”
And he also said: “The worst thing we could do now is ease up too soon and allow a second peak of the virus to hit the NHS and hit the British people.
“It would be the worst outcome, not just for public health, but for the economy and for our country as a whole.
“So, the current restrictions will remain in place.”
Mr Raab, who is standing in for Boris Johnson, said that the Government was committed to 100,000 coronavirus tests a day.
“That will give us greater understanding of the scope of infection across the country. It will also help us plan how to change the measures when we are ready to,” he explained.
According to the latest figures, published earlier today, there are now 201 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Wokingham borough.
This means it has only taken 11 days to see the figures double: we sadly reported more than 100 cases on Sunday, April 5. The first confirmed case in the borough was on Saturday, February 29.
The number of confirmed cases has been rising across the Thames Valley.
Reading now has 246 confirmed cases, Bracknell Forest 139 and Windsor and Maidenhead borough has 163. Slough has 262 confirmed cases and West Berkshire has 186.
These figures only include the number of confirmed cases through testing.
Mr Raab said: “We’re now at both a delicate and dangerous stage of this pandemic. If we rush to relax the measures in place, we would risk wasting all the sacrifices and all the progress we have made.
“And that would risk a quick return to another lockdown with all the threat to life a second peak of the virus would bring, and all the economic damage a second lockdown would carry.
“We need to be patient a while longer. Please, please stay home, save lives and protect the NHS, so we can safely return to life as close to normal as possible, as soon as possible.”
