Nearly a third of all coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire have been in the under 30s, but a quarter have been over 60, according to the latest Public Health England data.
It shows that up to October 23 there had been 9,818 cases of COVID-19 confirmed across the three upper tier authorities of Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.
The data shows that 2,303 of those were over 60, but the figures under 30 were higher at 3,150.
The age bracket with the most cases was the 20-24 range with 1,012 cases.
This was followed by the 15-19 age range with 891 cases and the 50-54 category with 818.
483 children of school age up to 14 have had the virus, and 135 toddlers.
In total 7,471 people aged 59 or under have contracted the virus.
How the spread of coronavirus looks across the different age groups.
Lincolnshire’s Director of Public Health Professor Derek Ward admitted that, in Lincoln in particular, “the vast majority of our positives are that in the younger age group”.
He said this was partly due to the testing centre at the University of Lincoln and students coming forward when they had symptoms.
However, he said: “Our student population are doing a fabulous job — a really, really, really good job of making sure that they’re getting tested and therefore isolating and making sure they aren’t passing it on onto the older age bands across the city.”
He said it was a pattern across the county. Age is one of the factors bosses measure when deciding whether to move the county into a higher tier, particularly at any increases to the older range because they are generally the ones which drive hospital activity.
Evidence suggests COVID-19 has a lesser effect on the younger population — though there is growing data around the impacts of “long COVID” in the months after the initial illness has passed.
Prior to lockdown restrictions being lifted the first time round health bosses had moved to allay fears over school children going back to school.
Fears were raised however, after a surge in cases across the country among young people, and concerns are ongoing how that will filter through to the older age brackets, particularly as the number of deaths has started rising again.
As of Thursday there had been 10,943 cases across the region. There have been 460 deaths of residents living in the area, of which 303 have been in hospitals.
Professor ward confirmed that in the seven days up to October 28, 12,000 tests were carried out with just over 1,000 poisitves – a 10% positivity rate.
Here’s the breakdown in full until October 23, 2020:
0-4: 135
5-9: 122
10-14: 226
15-19: 891
20-24: 1,012
25-29: 764
30-34: 794
35-39: 649
40-44: 618
45-49: 699
50-54: 818
55-59: 743
60-64: 501
65-69: 278
70-74: 298
75-79: 296
80-84: 309
85-89: 307
90+: 314
Unassigned: 44
Total: 9,818
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