Covid-19: Corby 'might be left behind' as lockdown lifts

The town with the highest Covid-19 case rate in England "might get left behind" as lockdown eases, a university professor warned.

In the week to 13 March, Corby in Northamptonshire had 181.4 cases per 100,000 people.

This was a 46% increase on the previous week and more than three times the England-wide rate.

Dr Stephen O'Brien said the town could be "in the position Leicester was in after the first lockdown".

Leicester had the UK's first full local lockdown in June, two weeks after the first set of coronavirus restrictions were eased.

Dr O'Brien, a visiting professor of nursing at the University of Northampton who lives in Corby, said it "doesn't feel like a lockdown [in the town] during this third period".

He said: "There is a lot of manufacturing here, a lot of key workers in essential industries, and they've all been at work."

Dr O'Brien said a number of factors were behind Corby's high rates, including the "close-knit community" leading to household mixing, fatigue from lockdown, and complacency caused by the vaccine rollout.

"There has been a lot of public health information given out in Corby," he said.

"There is a genuine concern we might get left behind once we get to the dates within the roadmap out of lockdown."

RS Components, which employs more than 2,000 people in Corby, has begun offering a lateral flow test to their employees twice a week.

Sue Coenen from the electrical product distributor said: "We're all committed to making sure Corby's rates come down.

"If you take a test, not only are you helping yourself and your families but you're helping the community."

Des Barber, manager of Corby Radio, spent 19 days in an intensive care unit with Covid-19 in October.

The 61-year-old said he was "still suffering from the effects" of the infection.

"I started back to work in the last three or four weeks and I can only manage two or three hours before I'm fatigued," he said.

His wife was in hospital for five days with Covid-19 at the same time and his son also had the virus.

He said "Corby people will do their best" to bring rates down and urged residents to follow restrictions and "embrace" the vaccine.

"Do what you can, don't get [Covid-19] - it's horrible," he added.

Rhosyn Harris, a consultant with Northamptonshire's public health team, said the rise in Corby's case rates was being taken "seriously".

She said because it can take five days for symptoms to appear after exposure to the virus the infections in the current figures were not "necessarily linked to the schools going back" on 8 March.

But she warned: "As schools return and we are testing more people, cases are going to rise naturally."

Ms Harris said asymptomatic testing was also now available to "a large chunk of the population".

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