Hastings and Rother report 49 Covid-19 deaths in one week

Statistics released by Public Health England show that 25 deaths have been reported in Hastings between December 30 and January 6.

During that same time frame, 24 deaths have been reported in Rother.

In Public Health England’s latest figures, which includes data from January 5 to January 6, eight deaths were reported in Hastings and six in Rother. In Sussex, 34 deaths were reported in total during this time period.

Hastings and Rother have recorded the highest number of deaths in any area of Sussex over the past week, the figures show.

In total, 77 deaths have been reported in Hastings since the start of the pandemic, with a further 150 reported in Rother. Only Mid Sussex has reported a higher number of deaths than Rother – 153.

Since the start of the pandemic, Sussex has reported a total of 1,340 deaths, according to the figures.

The increase in deaths comes weeks after both Hastings and Rother first started reporting a huge increase in Covid-19 cases.

The sudden rise saw both areas placed in Tier 3 and then Tier 4 restrictions before the rest of the county. Unlike other areas of the county, schools were also closed before the government decided to close them nationwide as part of a third lockdown.

On Wednesday (January 6), the UK as a whole recorded 1,041 new deaths which brings the total to 77,346.

Another 62,322 cases were reported which brings the total number of cases in the UK to 2,836,801.