A YEAR to the day after Cumbria confirmed its first case of Covid-19, the county’s most senior public health chief has paid tribute to the county’s “astonishing” response.

But Public Health Director Colin Cox says the pandemic’s impact has been “devastating,” with 1,400 lives lost.

This is in spite of the heroic efforts if front-line NHS staff in hospitals such as Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary, West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, and Furness General Hospital in Barrow.

But as a further Covid-19 patient death was confirmed by the hospital trust in the north of the county, Mr Cox said it was imperative that people do not begin to abandon lockdown restrictions.

“The response to the pandemic across Cumbria has been astonishing ­— and we have every reason to be proud of our local organisations,” said Mr Cox.

“But’s still been devastating. It’s 12 months since we got our first Cumbrian case ­— in Carlisle on March 3 last year and since then, if you go by the figures from the Office for National Statistics, there have been up to February 12, 1,400 deaths registered with Covid [as the cause].

“That’s people 1,400 people who have died early; families and friends who have lost loved ones ­— and the toll is continuing.”

Mr Cox said Cumbria’s coronavirus infection rates throughout the pandemic generally not been as bad as the North West average, though there had been peaks and troughs. Yet the county had been quick off the mark in launching its local test-and-trace operation.

“And our vaccination programme is is going incredibly well,” he said.

In the months ahead, there are potential risks: one is the potential for new variants which may be more resistant to the vaccines; and the other is that vaccination itself could fuel mutations if existing variants are able to spread before enough people are protected.

“So the rules absolutely have to stay in place until we are clear that we have a very large proportion of the population vaccinated,” said Mr Cox. “We may see things picking back up again ­— a third wave ­— as we go into next winter.

“I hope if that is the case it will be much smaller. Cumbria is now seeing about 70 new cases per 100,000 per week ­— the majority of it being the so-called Kent variant. But we are in a very different place.”, with new variants which are more infectious.

The News & Star broke the news a year ago today that a woman in had contacted her family to confirm she had tested positive for the virus earlier today. Mr Cox paid He described Cumbria’s whole-system response as “excellent.”

It has involved hospitals, councils, public health teams and community health services. “We can be very proud of our local organisations,” he said.

Mr Cox pointed out that those people who do now become ill with Covid-19 are less likely to die thanks to a combination of factors, including better treatment and understanding and the expanding vaccination programme which is protecting the most vulnerable.

But it is important, said Mr Cox, that Cumbrians are not tempted to relax their support for the lockdown restrictions, given that the virus is continuing to claim lives across the country.

Any person tempted to think that Covid-19 is no longer a threat need only look at the latest Cumbria death statistics.

As of yesterday, the NHS trust which runs The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven had reported 558 deaths. Officials formally confirmed 22 of those deaths ­— all since January 27 ­— in one grim day this week.

A further death at the North Cumbria Hospitals trust has been confirmed within the last 24 hours.

At University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust, which runs Furness General Hospital in Barrow and Westmorland General in Kendal, as well as hospitals in Lancashire, officials have reported 567 covid deaths. Added to those figures are deaths in care homes and other settings, with the figure well over 200 by the second part of last year.

Meanwhile, Cumbria’s seven-day infection rate is currently 82.6 per 100,000 of population, compared to the England average of 102.9.

Only Copeland and Allerdale now have seven-day infection rates which are presently above that England average figure, according to the latest Government data.

The seven-day infection rates per 100,000 or population for our local authority areas are as follows: Carlisle ­– 68.1; Copeland – 101.2; Eden ­– 67.6; Allerdale – 124.8; Barrow ­– 82; South Lakeland ­– 40.