South of England sees surge of Covid cases

Rebecca reiterates the importance of masks in enclosed areas and around the vulnerable to keep cases down over the winter.

There have been large spikes in the number of new coronavirus cases across the south of England over the last week.

The top spot for the highest number of cases was claimed by North East Somerset, with 877.5 people out of 100,000 contracting the virus. With the cold winter months approaching, these numbers seem to be set on continuing to rise.

Rebecca Sillman is a healthcare worker in Portsmouth, where more than 1,000 new cases have been recorded in the last week. She spoke about the measures that she and her place of work are taking to keep people safe over the coming months.

“We do mandatory lateral flow tests before every shift, and a PCR test once a week,” she said, with visitors only allowed in if they are fully vaccinated and wear a mask at all times.

Even though her workplace has not seen a rise in cases, her employer has put extra precautions in place to keep everyone safe. These include extra cleaning and every employee getting the Covid booster jab and flu jabs as they become available.

Rebecca also tests when going to social events, and limits who she mixes with to keep the risk of infection as low as possible.