West Sussex coronavirus cases top 3,000

It comes amid a huge jump in new infections across the UK

Dr McMahon expressed his condolences to people who lost loved ones during the pandemic
Author: Ryan BurrowsPublished 7th Sep 2020

More than 3,000 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed across West Sussex since the start of the outbreak in the UK.

As of Sunday, official figures from the Department of Health and Social Care revealed that the total had hit 3,035.

The first of those was reported back in March, when a nurse working at Worthing Hospital was confirmed to have contracted the infection - one of the first officially recorded cases anywhere in the UK.

As of Sunday, the total number of cases recorded in each borough and district across West Sussex was as follows:

  • Mid Sussex: 662
  • Horsham: 554
  • Crawley: 489
  • Worthing: 451
  • Arun: 364
  • Chichester: 305
  • Adur: 210

There have been a total of 114 deaths where a patient has tested positive for coronavirus at the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since the start of the outbreak.

The trust runs St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, Worthing Hospital and Southlands Hospital in Shoreham.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has admitted he is "concerned" after the daily number of UK coronavirus cases reached its highest level since May on Sunday.

Official figures show 2,988 new COVID-19 infections were reported in a 24-hour period.

It is a large rise on Saturday's figure of 1,813 infections.

Sunday's number is the highest daily total since 23 May, when there were 2,959 cases.

Mr Hancock said there had been rises across Europe, and that it was "so important that we do all we can to prevent that happening here".

He added that the new positive tests were predominantly among younger people, but warned that this could lead to a rise across the population as a whole, because it had happened elsewhere.

He said: "It's so important that people don't allow this illness to infect grandparents and lead to the sort of problems we saw earlier in the year."

Mr Hancock said that while more people were being tested, "the proportion that tests positive is going up as well".

He said it was important that everyone "does their bit" by observing social distancing, and insisted that schools and workplaces are "Covid-secure".

Asked about another lockdown, he replied: "We'll take whatever action is necessary."